There is nothing better than a warm cup of tea with a slice of cake on a cold winter night, and there is an easy way to make your own.
Mary Berry has shared one of her first-ever recipes for a Victoria sponge that she developed before she became the legendary cook she is known as today.
Mary revealed that this “classic recipe” is what started her love of baking. On her website, she wrote: “For my first job for the Electricity Board, I would visit people in their homes and teach them how to use their ovens by cooking this fabulous cake.
“The all-in-one method makes it one of the simplest cakes to make. I feel it is the most healing of cakes to make, too.”
This easy recipe takes only 30 minutes to bake and requires simple ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen. So, grab a wooden spoon and learn how to make Mary Berry’s classic Victoria sponge cake.
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How to make Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 225g (8oz) of self-raising flour
- 225g (8oz) of caster sugar
- 225g (8oz) of cold butter or baking spread, plus extra for greasing
- Four eggs
- One teaspoon of baking powder
For the topping and filling:
- 300g (½ pint) of whipped double cream
- One jar of strawberry jam (370g or half a cup)
- Caster sugar for dusting
Kitchen equipment:
- Two 20cm (eight-inch) cake tins
- Baking paper
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F), 160C (320F) for a fan oven or Gas Mark 4. Grease your cake tins and line them with baking paper.
Place the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir for around two minutes until you have a smooth and light cake batter.
Divide the cake batter in half and pour it evenly into the two cake tins. Use a knife to smooth out the cake batter on top.
Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes or until the cake has risen and is golden brown in colour.
Leave the cakes to cool in the cake tins for a few minutes. Once they have rested, run a knife around the edge to loosen them and take them out of the tins. Set them aside on a wire rack if you own one and leave them to fully cool.
In a bowl, whisk the cream until it is fully whipped. Then decide which cake should be on the top and spread jam on the bottom. For the cake’s bottom, carefully spread the whipped cream on top.
Place the cakes together so that the jam side is touching the cream side. Dust the top of the cake with sugar, and then your classic Victoria sponge cake is ready to serve.
