Serves 8-10
Ingredients
175g self-raising flour
Pinch of sea salt
175g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
175g caster or vanilla sugar, plus extra to finish
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp soft-set raspberry jam
Equipment
2 x 20cm sandwich tins or a 23cm round tin, lightly greased and base-lined with baking parchment NOTE For total egg weight less than 175g use 2 x 18cm sandwich tins, or a 20cm round tin
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl and put aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, using either a wooden spoon or a hand-held electric whisk, beat the butter to a cream.
3. Add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is very light and creamy (this will take about 5 minutes with a hand-held electric whisk and up to 10 minutes using a wooden spoon). The lighter and fluffier the butter and sugar mix is, the easier it will be to blend in the eggs, which, in turn, helps to stop the mixture curdling.
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4. Add the eggs, about a quarter at a time, adding 1 tbsp of the weighed-out flour with each addition and beating thoroughly before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla extract with the last of the egg.
5. Sift in the rest of the flour, half at a time, and use a large metal spoon to carefully fold it in. The mixture should drop off the spoon easily when tapped against the side of the bowl. If it doesn’t, add a spoonful or two of hot water.
6. Divide the mixture equally between the prepared sandwich tins (or spoon it all into the larger cake tin if using), spreading it out lightly and evenly with the back of a spoon. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the cake(s) is lightly golden and spring back into shape when gently pressed with a finger.
7. Leave the cake(s) in the tin(s) for a couple of minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. (If you’ve baked a single cake, once cooled, cut it horizontally into two equal layers.) 8. When cold, spread one cake layer with the jam, place the second on top and dust lightly with caster sugar. The cake will keep for five days in an airtight tin.
Variations
Fillings and toppings
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Instead of raspberry jam, fill with any other favourite jam or home-made lemon curd (see panel left), or fill and top with chocolate hazelnut spread.
In the summer, fill with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream, and dust with icing sugar.
Victoria cupcakes
Bake the mixture in one or two well-greased or paper-lined muffin trays; there should be enough to make 18 cupcakes.When cool, split in half and fill with jam and whipped cream.
Recipe taken from Cakes — River Cottage Handbook No 8 by Pam Corbin with introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, published by Bloomsbury on Monday, March 14 at £14.99. It is available for £13.49 at timesbooks.co.uk
Text © Pam Corbin 2011