Classic Victoria Sponge Cake

This soft and fluffy Victoria sponge cake is sandwiched together with strawberry jam and freshly whipped cream. It’s a baking classic that’s simply delicious!

Victoria sponge cake dates back to 1861 and was named after Queen Victoria, who supposedly enjoyed a slice with her afternoon cup of tea. Traditionally the sponge layers were sandwiched together with a thin layer of jam, however, over the years the recipe has been tweaked and now it is most commonly filled with whipped cream or buttercream. Personally, I prefer my Victoria sponge cake to be filled with whipped cream. It’s lighter, easier to make and uses fewer ingredients. After all, a classic Victoria sponge is all about simplicity!

Ingredients used to make this Victoria sponge cake

To make this Victoria sponge cake, you will need 7 simple ingredients:

• Margarine or butter – I prefer to use Stork Original margarine instead of butter. It makes the sponge light and fluffy and helps the cake layers rise with a flat top.
• Sugar – you can use either white or golden caster sugar for this recipe.
• Self-raising flour – the raising agent in self-raising flour will help the cake layers rise. You can instead use 300g plain flour + 1.5 teaspoons baking powder.
• Eggs – you’ll need 3 large room temperature eggs for this cake, or you can use 4 medium eggs.
• Milk – full-fat or semi-skimmed milk will work just fine.
• Double cream – for the filling you’ll whip the double cream to soft peaks. Double cream can also be called whipping cream or heavy cream in the US. Do not buy single cream, it will not whip or thicken.
• Jam – Victoria sponge is traditionally made with strawberry jam, but you could also use raspberry jam or even lemon curd.

Which size cake tins to use

This recipe uses two 8-inch round cake tins to make a two-layer sponge cake, the tins I used were non-stick and loose-based which makes it much easier to remove the sponges. Using the same sized tin is important as otherwise the baking time will be effected. If you have different sized baking tins, here’s a rough guide for how to adjust the baking time:

• 6-inch round tin = increase the baking time by 10 minutes.
• 9-inch round tin = decrease the baking time by 5 minutes.
• This recipe could also be used to make cupcakes instead and will make roughly 18 in total. Bake the cupcakes 18-20 minutes at 180°C (fan).

Whisking the cream to soft peaks

Soft peaks are when the cream looks like soft, pillowy, clouds that hold their shape when you lift the whisk up.

To give a rough idea of timings, if you’re using an electric whisk, it should take roughly 5 minutes to whisk the cream to soft peaks. If you’re whisking the cream using a normal whisk, expect this to take up to 10 minutes (and expect an achy arm!).

Whipped cream can turn from soft peaks to a split, grainy texture in a matter of seconds. So to prevent this from happening, I recommend swapping the whisk for a metal spoon the moment the cream starts to thicken, that way you can gently fold the cream until the consistency feels right.

Sandwiching the Victoria sponge cake

Once the sponge layers are cool it’s time to sandwich them together. I’ve kept this recipe true to the Victoria sponge cake classic, using freshly whipped cream and strawberry jam for the filling. However, if you fancy trying something different, you could instead use buttercream, raspberry jam or even lemon curd.

Just like scones, there’s an age-old debate as to whether you should do jam then cream, or cream then jam. Either way, it helps to leave a border around the outside edge otherwise the filling will spill over when you place the second sponge layer on top.

For a simple decoration to finish off the cake, dust the top with a generous layer of icing sugar or if you fancy something more elaborate, garnish with sliced strawberries and more cream.

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