I've obviously baked this before, and having always used Delia Smith's recipe from 'Delia's Complete Illustrated Cookery Course - Classic Edition' (a firm favourite of the Mother!), and found no issues with the recipe, I don't usually deem it necessary to deviate. However, I thought I'd use my new cookery book - 'Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook' and give this a test drive (I did have Delia on hand to compare and contrast).
Firstly I measured everything out into one bowl - something I don't usually do, as I usually do it a step at a time, but it seemed to work just fine. The tweak I did make though was cutting the butter up into small cubes before adding to the mixture - a tip I picked up for a celebrity chef programme (I think it may have been Lorraine Pascale), as it helps combine the mixture quicker than one large lump.
I poured the mixture as evenly as possibe into the tins - and tapped them on the work surface (a Gordon Ramsey tip to release any air bubbles) and popped them in for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
With a prod and a glance, I removed the cakes, and left them to cool in their tins, before removing and putting on a cooling tray.
Whilst they were cooling I got to work on the butter cream - a recipe handed down from the mother - so probably from a cookery magazine from yester year! I started off by creaming the butter and icing sugar together with a electric handwhisk (mod con that I thought I'd give a whirl) - I used Lorraine Pascale's tip of putting a clean tea towel over the top of the whisk and bowl to ensure the cloud of icing sugar didn't fill my kitchen - which worked a treat (thanks LP!). After getting the mixture going, I decided to get the trusty wooden spoon, and get creaming by hand - very strenuous work, but a light fluffy mixture was a happy result!
Once the sponges were cooled out of their tins, I spread the buttercream onto the bottom layer, and the Strawberry Jam on the other sponge, and quickly (whilst crossing everything and holding my breath) sandwiched the two sponges together! Added a strawberry 'garnish' and a dusting of icing sugar, and the taste test could commence!
My tasting panel was my housemate Jen - I served hers with a piping hot cup of tea, and she commented on the moistness of the sponge, and the nice flavours coming through. The others on my panel were colleagues at work, they commented on the flavours and thickness of the sponge, getting a varying of results - 8.5, and a 9.5 out of 10.
As I hadn't made this for a while, and had a bad experience with a Victoria Sponge at Jubilee (I don't like to talk about it!), I was pretty pleased with the result, although my even distribution of cake mix wasn't quite a success with one sponge slightly larger on one side.
(For my birthday soiree, I had an afternoon tea theme in the day and baked the sponge again, using the same recipe, and methods, and I am pleased to report, we had no wonky sponges! This time however, I whipped up some cream, and layered that with some strawberry jam for the filling, and topped the cake with more whipped cream and an array of fruit on top. It definitely was aesthetically pleasing! I also made some Mini Victoria Sponges and used the same recipe, but splitting them into 12 victoria sponge holes - a tin designed especially for this purpose (I was on a waiting list for this tin at Lakeland!!!) 6 Lemon Curd and Buttercream, and 6 Classic Victoria Sponge with Strawberry Jam and Buttercream - both a resounding success!)
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