Lately I have been binge watching old BBC murder mystery series, and one of the recurring themes, aside from the copious amounts of tea and beautifully manicured cottage gardens, are the town bake-offs.  I have lost count of the number of people that have keeled over dead after eating a heaping forkful of Victoria Sponge.  This, in turn, got me thinking about the fact that I had never actually tried a real Victoria Sponge, either making one or eating one, and so, from the safety of my own kitchen, I decided to experiment.  I read through the dozen, or so, Victoria Sponge recipes found on the BBC website, and readily figured out that cake was equal parts butter, eggs, flour, and sugar.  It also seems like the more traditional sandwich fillings are raspberry jam and whipped cream, but strawberry jam and buttercream are the more popular ones.  I used strawberry jam for the filling in my cakes, since that was what I had on hand, along with a combo of buttercream and whipped cream.  I felt like I needed the buttercream to hem in my slightly loose homemade jam.

Cake

Recipe makes four 4″ round cakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Butter (room temp)
• 4 Eggs
• 2 cups self-rising Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (~177 C).
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Beat in the flour.
6. Beat until the mixture is soft and creamy.
7. Divide the mixture evenly into 4 greased baking ramekins or mini-cake pans.
8. Bake for 20 -25 minutes.
9. Allow the cakes to cool fully before slicing them in half to form sandwiches.

Buttercream and Assemblage:

• 1/2 cup Butter (room temp)
• 2 tbsp Milk or Cream
• 2 –  3 cups powdered Sugar + more for sprinkling
• 3/4 cups Strawberry or Raspberry Jam
• 1 cup Whipped Cream (1/4 pint Heavy Cream + 1 tbsp Powdered Sugar = whipped until fluffy)

1. Beat the butter until fluffy.
2. Gradually add the powdered sugar into the butter.
3. Beat in the milk to soften your buttercream sightly.
4. Place the buttercream in a piping bag.
5. Pipe the buttercream along the edges of the cake bottom to create a barrier that will hopefully retain the jam and cream.
6. Scoop the jam into the buttercream ring.  My jam was unfortunately a little more runny then desired for these particular cake, but perfectly tasty.
7. Scoop some whipped cream onto the jam.
8. Gently set the top half of the cake over the fillings.
9. Sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar.