The Lovely Drawer: Not The Dowager's Victoria Sponge Cake

What Victoria was to Albert,

so Victoria Sponge cake is to a cup of tea.

Until I moved to the United Kingdom,

I had never heard of or tasted this classic treat.

For all of the Americans out there

who, like me, may not have grown up 

with this on the table at tea time,

I'll walk you through the basics.

Two sponge cakes 

+ one layer of whipped cream 

+ one layer of strawberry jam 

_______________________

Classic Victoria Sponge Cake

When my friend Teri of The Lovely Drawer

(you know, the one who did that killer Chorizo Stew recipe?)

mentioned she didn't like cream

(as in cream, whipped cream & ice cream)

I slapped her in the face.

Fine.

Not really.

But I was really sad.

Fortunately, she offered a peace offering

in saying that she accepted marscapone cheese.

Which, obviously, is the next best thing.

{Or maybe the best thing. Not sure how to rank the dairy family. They're all winners!}

And when she made me this cake

for dessert after dinner at their house one night,

I not only forgave her 

for shunning my camarades in the dairy section,

but I vowed to never settle for regular Victoria Sponge again.

{Which means, I'll also need to start crafting up a lot of reasons to invite myself over to her house.}

Here's how you can make one

with instructions from Teri, herself.

(This reads better if you read this in an English accent.)

***

So.....Victoria Sponge with a twist. Not so typically British but far superior, I think. I've been of the opinion that this classic can so easily be dry and boring but replacing the cream with mascarpone icing and the changing up the jam to raspberry gives it a whole appeal. My friend made me this cake originally and I totally had to eat my Victoria sponge-dissing words, along with my huge slice of cake. 

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients; 

225g self raising flour

225g butter (softened)

225g caster sugar (US read: normal)

4 eggs

2 teaspoons 

vanilla extract

For the filling;

Raspberry jam

250g mascarpone cheese

2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar plus extra for dusting (US read: powdered sugar)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract. 

A punnet of raspberries to decorate (US read: little plastic basket of raspberries)

Method:

Whip together butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy

Then add vanilla extract and one egg and beat again. 

Add each remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of your flour and beat thoroughly after each addition. 

Once mixed, fold in the remaining flour with a spatula until combined. 

Pour mixture into a lined 20cm cake tin and put into the oven. 

Bake at 150 C degrees (US read: 325F) for about 45 mins or until golden and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Leave the cake to cool slightly and remove from tin to cool completely. 

Once cold, cut horizontally in two to put your filling in. Spread the top half with as much jam as you want.

Mix all the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl until fully mixed and spreadable. Spread this mix on your bottom half and put the two halves back together. 

Dust the top of the cake with plenty of icing sugar and then arrange raspberries on top of the cake. 

Lightly dust some more icing sugar on top of the raspberries.

Who's mad about that?

Now, go...

make this immediately!

Or at least pin it for later

and let me know

so I can stop by accordingly.

(Also, check out Teri's SUPER CUTE blog. You'll be impressed.)

*all images from The Lovely Drawer