Jumbo jammy dodgers
Ingredients
Makes 4 large jammy dodgers
125g unsalted butter, softened
60g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
125g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
60g fine semolina flour
6 tsps strawberry jam
Method
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1 Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
2 In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add both flours and mix until the dough comes together in a ball. Dust a work surface with flour and roll the dough out into a large circle about 5mm thick.
3 Using a large, heart-shaped or round biscuit cutter, cut out 8 biscuits. Place 4 of the biscuits on the prepared baking tray. With the remaining 4 biscuits, cut a 2cm heart or circle out of the centre of the dough. Sprinkle these with caster sugar and then carefully add to the baking tray.
4 Place the tray in the fridge or freezer for 15–20 minutes, to firm up the dough.
5 While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Bake the chilled biscuits for 12–15 minutes until they turn a pale golden colour. Remove from the oven and let the biscuits cool on the baking tray.
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6 When cool, spread 1½ teaspoons of strawberry jam on the surface of each of the 4 solid biscuits, leaving a 1cm border. Place the cut-out biscuits on top, sugar-side up, and press together. The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
Victoria sponge cake
Ingredients
Serves 8–10
4 medium eggs, weighed in their shells
The weight of the eggs in each of the following: unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing; caster sugar; self-raising flour
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Filling
100g home-made or good-quality shop-bought strawberry jam
1 punnet fresh strawberries, washed, dried and sliced
400ml double cream
Decoration
1 strawberry (from above punnet), sliced
Icing sugar for dusting
20cm round cake tin, about 7cm deep
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 3. Butter the cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
2 Weigh the eggs and then set aside. Weigh out the same amount of butter and caster sugar and place in a bowl. Weigh the same amount of flour too, and set aside.
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3 In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, along with a heaped tablespoon of the weighed-out flour, mixing well. Once all the eggs are well incorporated, add the remaining flour and mix until just combined.
4 Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the sponge springs back to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to a wire rack to cool completely.
5 Use a serrated bread knife to split it through the middle horizontally, giving you 2 discs. Now beat the double cream in a bowl until thick. Place one cake disc on a pretty plate or pedestal and slather it with the jam. Drop dollops of whipped cream near the centre of the cake, and spread it out towards the edges with a palette knife. Reserve a strawberry for decoration and sprinkle the remainder over the top of the cake. Dollop the remaining cream to fill in any gaps and then top with the other cake disc, forcing the cream to ooze to the sides.
Dust the top and sides with icing sugar and decorate with the sliced strawberry. The cake will keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Extracted from British Baking by Peyton and Byrne, published by Square Peg, rrp £20, © Oliver Peyton 2011. Photographs © Colin Campbell 2011; www.peytonandbyrne.co.uk