Light and fluffy buttery sponge cake sandwiched with lashings of whipped fresh cream and strawberry jam. A classic English tea time treat served with a hot cup of tea.
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to Fan Oven 160°C/180°C/350°F/Gas 4
Grease and line your cake tins or insert cake tin liners.
Ensure the butter is at room temperature and soft enough to beat. If not soften it slightly in the microwave. (Be very careful not to melt it though – just do 5 seconds at a time if you are unsure.)
Add all the remaining ingredients to the butter and whisk thoroughly with an electric whisk until just combined. This should take around 45 seconds to 1 minute, and no more.
NB to sieve the flour, see Recipe Notes
Transfer to the prepared cake tins (see Recipe Notes) and cook in the centre of the oven for 18 - 22 minutes or until the sponge is cooked. It is cooked when:
- the centre feels springy when lightly touched with your finger and no imprint remains
- a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
- the cake is beginning to come away from the sides of the tin.
Take out of the oven and leave for 5 minutes. Remove the cakes from the tins onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool.
Weigh the cream directly into a mixing bowl and whip with an electric whisk until it reaches soft peaks. It needs to be thick enough to spread and hold its shape but be careful not to overwhip or it will become grainy.
Turn one of the cakes up side down and place in the centre of a serving plate so the flat side faces up. Spread with the strawberry jam.
Top with the whipped cream, gently smoothing it over the jam.
Place the second cake on top, flat side down.
Tip the icing sugar into a sieve and shake evenly over the top of the cake.
Serve at room temperature with hot tea. Store in the fridge.
Equipment
Sieve the flour
Balancing the cake tins:
It is important that both tins have as equal amount of batter as possible. You can do it by eye but this is a really simple way to be accurate. To do this, I:
For a larger cake, use 3 eggs and 2 x 8 inch cake tins: