Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge Cake with buttercream and jam or Victoria Sandwich Cake, a truly classic British dessert for a traditional tea party. Super easy to make, and heavenly delicious!
Sometimes the simple recipes are the ones that win everybody's heart. And this easy dessert has been the nation's favourite sweet treat for quite a while now. Named after Queen Victoria, the sandwich cake is just that: 2 sponge cakes sandwiched together with jam or jam and buttercream.
It is said that this was the Queen's favourite dessert, and it was usually served together with others sweet treats and sandwiches at the famous afternoon tea parties.
The cake uses equal amounts of butter, eggs and flour, and can be flavoured with vanilla extract or any other extract of your choice. Self-raising flour works best here, the cakes rise beautifully, and they are fluffy and moist.
I still add a bit of baking powder regardless of the type of flour used, just to ensure a light fluffy texture. I actually use the same technique for most bakes, and it works every single time.
Mary Berry really is the queen of baking, and my favourite dessert ever of hers is the one and only Sticky Toffee Pudding, with the Victoria Sponge following very closely.
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Ingredients needed to make Victoria sponge cake
- self-raising flour
- butter -soften, but not melted, unsalted butter works best
- granulated sugar - or caster sugar also ok
- vanilla extract - or any other extract of your choice
- eggs - I used 4 large eggs, use 5 is you use small eggs
- baking powder
- icing sugar - or confectioner's sugar
- milk - to loosen up the batter
- jam - red jam is the popular one for this cake, bur feel free to use any jam you have
Step-by-step photos and instructions
Using buttercream is optional, although it adds silkiness and a lovely vanilla touch to the cake, so I recommend it. Feel free to use any jam of your choice, or marmalade.
- in a bowl, beat the soften butter with the granulated sugar until it becomes creamy, then add the eggs and beat well
Not to panic if the batter looks like it curdled at this point, it's absolutely fine, it won't affect the consistency of the cake.
- add the sifted flour, baking powder and vanilla extract, and beat well to get a smooth batter.
- grease and flour 2 cake tins of 19 cm (7.48 inches), then divide the batter evenly between the tins, and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes or until the cakes are golden and well risen, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
- to make the buttercream, beat together the icing sugar, soften butter, vanilla extract and milk until silky and creamy.
- to assemble the cake, spread the buttercream on the bottom of one cake, then spread the jam, and top with the other cake.
Ans that's all we need to do. If you use 2 cake tins, the Victoria Sponge Cake is ready in about 30 minutes from scratch. After that, allow the cakes to cool, sandwich them together, and it's all ready to serve, not need to refrigerate.
Expert tips
The best way to get equal cakes in height is to divide the batter in half, and bake the cakes in two baking tins that have the same size. In saves you time, otherwise you have to wait for one cake to bake, then bake the second cake.
Or, if you have a larger cake tin, bake it all at once, and cut it in half with a sharp knife. If you have a smaller cake tin, I would not recommend baking it all at once, the middle might not bake properly, while the top is golden already.
The cake tins I used have a size of 19cm (7.48 inches). They are medium-seized tins, but you can easily cut 8 generous cake slices of out the cake. For us, that's more than enough, but, depending on the number of people to be served, you might need to increase the amount of ingredients.
The original recipe calls for 250 grams of sugar. For me, that's quite a lot, especially since I used buttercream and jam too. That's a hell lot of sugar we are talking about. I prefer my desserts less sweet, so I only used 200 grams of granulated sugar for the sponges, and that was more than enough. I still got a fluffy texture, so it really was no need for any more than that.
Other desserts by Mary Berry
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Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- 250 g self-raising flour (2 cups)
- 250 g butter (soften) (1.1 cup, 8 oz)
- 200 g granulated sugar 1 cup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
To make the buttercream
- 100 g butter (soften) (3.5 oz)
- 200 g icing sugar (1.6 cups, 7 oz)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
For the filling
- ½ any jam of your choice (I used plum jam)
Instructions
- To make the sponge, add the granulated sugar and soften butter to a bowl, and beat well with a hand mixer until creamy.
- Add the eggs and mix again, then add the flour, vanilla extract and baking podwer, and mix to get a smooth batter.
- Butter and flour two cake tins (19 cm, 7.48 inches), and divide the batter evenly between the tins.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahreneheit) for 20 minutes, or until golden, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Leave the cakes to cool down.
- To make the buttercream, sift the icing sugar with the butter, then add the vanilla extract and milk, and mix again to get a silky cream.
- To assemble the cake, spread the icing over the bottom of one cake, spread the jam over, and top with the second cake.
Notes
- The best way to get equal cakes in height is to divide the batter in half, and bake the cakes in two baking tins that have the same size. In saves you time, otherwise you have to wait for one cake to bake, then bake the second cake.
- Or, if you have a larger cake tin, bake it all at once, and cut it in half with a sharp knife. If you have a smaller cake tin, I would not recommend baking it all at once, the middle might not bake properly, while the top is golden already.
- The cake tins I used have a size of 19cm (7.48 inches). They are medium-seized tins, but you can easily cut 8 generous cake slices of out the cake. For us, that's more than enough, but, depending on the number of people to be served, you might need to increase the amount of ingredients.
- The original recipe calls for 250 grams of sugar. For me, that's quite a lot, especially since I used buttercream and jam too. That's a hell lot of sugar we are talking about. I prefer my desserts less sweet, so I only used 200 grams of granulated sugar for the sponges, and that was more than enough. I still got a fluffy texture, so it really was no need for any more than that.
Sarah
I think I over mixed my batter as one sponge sunk in middle. Is a very light springy sponge, but I prefer a more moist sponge, but it was very nice though.
Daniela Apostol
Overmixing the batter does make the sponge collapse, but as you say it is still yummy.