Victoria Sponge – Celebration Cake!
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A delicious classic bake – a Victoria sponge. Soft & light cakes, strawberry jam, vanilla buttercream & fresh strawberries!
Victoria sponge
Strawberry season isn’t quiiiite here yet, but I bought a packet anyway and they were surprisingly tasty! This led me to think I should 100% do something with them, but definitely not overdo them. So… I thought I would bake a classic! Funnily enough it is one of the simplest and yet most delicious classic cakes around!
When I was younger I used to think that this type of cake was boring – why would I want it if it’s not chocolate? But oh how naive was I. This cake is SO GOOD and one of the best cakes in the world. However, sometimes the simplest of things can be the most difficult to get absolutely perfect!
Layers
I find that with a Victoria sponge, it’s all about getting everything perfectly in proportion. Such as, if you’re making a two layered cake, everything should be 300g (i.e. the sugar, flour, butter and eggs) and same for if you were doing a larger cake – everything should be 400g! It makes it far simpler and generally provides a foolproof cake. This recipe is for a three layer, 8 inch cake – so for a smaller cake (two layers), simply reduce the cake ingredients to 300g, split the mixture into two tins, and bake for 20 minutes!
Eggs
I weigh out my eggs when making a cake like this so I have no doubts it’s going to work, and once you know your oven well enough you will know when is the perfect time to take the cake out of the oven and when it might need a tiny while longer in the oven!
Cream or buttercream?
This cake is traditionally served with fresh fruit and whipped cream, or jam and buttercream – its entirely up to you! Personally, when i’m making it last a bit longer, I use buttercream so that it stays fresh for longer – whereas the cream may go a bit icky, especially on a hot day!
Assemble
I tend to pipe my buttercream around the edge of each layer, then a bit more in the middle with my jam sitting on the top, it tends to not slide around this way! It also stops jam sliding down the sides so you keep the nice clean edges of the 3 layers of sponge. I use strawberry jam in this recipe however if you would prefer raspberry then why not?! Enjoy!
Victoria sponge - Celebration Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 400 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 400 g caster sugar
- 400 g eggs (roughly 8 eggs)
- 400 g self raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp whole milk
Decoration
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 450 g icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 g strawberry jam
- fresh strawberries
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 190ºC/170ºC fan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins.
- In a large bowl, beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar until combined.
- Then, add your eggs, whole milk, self raising flour and baking powder, and beat until combined again - but be careful to not over beat.
- Divide the mixture equally between the three tins and smooth it over.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the cake is golden and springs back (a skewer should also come out clean).
- Turn the sponges out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool fully.
Vanilla Buttercream
- Beat the unsalted butter with an electric mixer until it's smooth and loose.
- Then, gradually beat in the icing sugar & vanilla extract.
- If the icing is too stiff, add 1 tbsp whole milk at a time to get your desired thickness!
Decoration
- Spread or pipe the buttercream onto the top of one of the sponges, then spoon on half of your jam.
- Place the second sponge on top and repeat the process - finish with the third sponge, and any left over buttercream on top!
- Add some fresh strawberries, perhaps a sprinkle of icing sugar and serve!
Notes
- When decorating the cake, I like to pipe a small amount of the buttercream around the edge of the sponges, then put a little more in the middle with the jam on top - this stops it falling out all over the place, but this is simply my choice! 🙂
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months!
- I use this piping bag
- I use this Medium 2D Closed Star Piping Tip
- I use these 8" Cake Tin
ENJOY!
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J x
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What butter do you use for the buttercream? I use Stork for the cake itself but I’m struggling to find a butter for the buttercream that gives it a nice flavour
I use any supermarket own brand unsalted butter for my buttercream!
Hi Jane
This cake looks amazing 😊 if I was to use whipped double cream for the filling/decoration how much would you use and would you recommend sweetening the cream with icing sugar, if so how much? Thank you x
I would use about 450ml of cream with 100g of icing sugar 🙂 x
Jane.. do you use unsalted butter for this recipe or salted? Xx
unsalted
unsalted x
This looks amazingly delicious. I have decided to use almonds and creme for the outside. I dug out e inside and filled it with Reece’s pieces ! Delicious
This looks a-amazing!
Can the sponges be made in advance and frozen to decorate at a later date?
Thanks
Michelle
Hey! Yes they can indeed ?
THIS…LOOKS…AMAZING…
nothing beats an old classic, am i right? Just looking at the pictures i am hungry (even though i just ate). good work Jane. i am curious though i want to know every time i bake my cake tastes eggy, i don’t no why is it because my eggs are from caged hens. ight i ask where you get your eggs from?
thnx XXX
Hi! Unfortunately I wouldn’t know why they are tasting eggy unless there is something wrong with what you are doing in the process of baking and the mixture is splitting, or the eggs themselves.
Hi. Recipe sounds delicious! love to try. But I’ve read some of your other recipes and they 400g eggs is roughly (7 large eggs) here its 8. what do i do? help
Just add your eggs till its 400g!
Hi Jane, A question about sandwich tins, if you don’t mind. Which sandwich tins do you use please and do you line the sides or just grease please? I am having real problems. I line the bottom with parchment and use cake release but still giving me a problem. Thanks Jane and congratulations on being a finalist – well done. xx
Hiya! Sorry its taken me a while to reply. I use sandwich tins or just cake tins from Asda.. they’re cheap but good! I only grease and line the bottom of my tins. If you use Cake Release you shouldn’t need to use parchment paper as well.. And thank you! x
Thank you Jane, I have recently purchased 2 new tins and it looks like I have solved the problem. Fingers crossed. Thank you for all your amazing recipes. x
Hi
Please could you tell me for the filling/decor if I was to use double cream, how much would it use? Xxx
Do you mean just whipped double cream?
This recipe looks amazing, I’m going to use it to make my sons Barcelona themed bithday cake! I hope you don’t mind me asking but how much would I need to increase the Ingredients by if I wanted to use a 10″ cake tin? Thanks 🙂
Hiya! I recommend using this website to calculate the recipe up – you put in each ingredient and it’ll tell you how much you will need instead! http://www.cakebaker.co.uk/baking-tin-size-conversion-calculator.html
You are a superstar – thank you so much. My family love trying all of your recipes – I am sure that they’ll feel the same about this one too x
The cake is so neat and it looks delicious
Just made this, it’s the first cake like this that I’ve made, very impressed with the simplicity of this yet it looks so elegant, will see how it goes down tomorrow as it’s a surprise birthday cake ?
Aah yaaayy! I’m so glad! I hope the birthday guy/gal loves it!
Wow, accidentally stumbled across your website and it is fab.
Have made many victoria sponges before but never as nice as this. My other half doesnt like cake (yes he is mad!) but had two slices of this! Looking forward to testing out some more recipes 🙂
Aah thank you Gemma! I’m so happy he liked it! And don’t worry, my other half hates cake too most of the time ahah!
Utterly delicious and I really like that you’ve added an extra layer. I love Victoria sponge and think strawberry jam is a perfect alternative. Great recipe and beautiful photographs xx
Hehe yes, I’m a fan of three layer cakes! And thank you so so much Sammie! 🙂 xxx
I gave this cake a go for my brothers Birthday as he loves simple classic cakes… And I must admit it came out amazing!! We bought another cake from a bakery just in case I messed this one up, but this cake was so much better than the one we bought!! Absolutely delicious!! Anyone thinking of trying it, it’s a must. Also! All recipes on here are awesome! Tried a few cupcake ones too! ?? ??
Ahhh thats amazing! I’m so happy my recipe turned out better than a bakery! I’m so glad you love my recipes and have tried some out! Thank you!