Victoria Sponge Cake — the name sounds so regal, and the end result looks so fancy — it has to be hard, right?? Not at all! This classic British cake recipe is actually easy to make, and you can use it for birthdays, special occasions, or even high tea!

I recently took a class at my local Sur La Table called “Classic Summer Cakes”. We made three different cakes, all from scratch, and all can be made from start to finish in under an hour. I’ll be sharing all three recipes with you so you can enjoy them as much as I did, and I am starting with the “hardest” (I use that term loosely) of the three.

You can make this either as one large cake, or several smaller, individual sized cakes. If you do the individual sized version, you will need to replace the round cake pans called for in the attached recipe with two rectangular 13 inch x 9 inch pans, as well as one large circular cookie cutter (4.5″ or 5″).  You will bake the cakes in the rectangular pans and then turn them out and allow to cool before using the cookie cutter to cut out circles — you will need three circles for each cake.

Another quick bonus of doing the individual cakes versus the large single cake is that once you are done with your cuts, you can take the remnants of the cake, the berry filling, and the whipped cream, layer it all together in a glass bowl and voila! Berry trifle! It will look like you went to the effort of making two desserts when all you did was use the scraps of the first for the second!

Sur la Table has stores across the United States — just visit their website to see if your local store has classes. They can teach you how to do everything from sharpen and handle knives to making a delicious Sunday Brunch from scratch!

Victoria Sponge Cake

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Ingredients

• For the Cake:
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• For the Filling:
• 1/2 cup good quality strawberry jam
• 3 cups fresh summer berries (I used blueberries, strawberries and raspberries)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, for dusting cake

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and position the rack in the center.
2. Lightly butter the bottoms and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans. Dust pans with flour and shake out excess
3. Place mixing bowl (for whipped cream) in refrigerator to chill

For the cake:

1. Place all the ingredients EXCEPT the milk in a food processor/stand mixer and mix to a thick batter
2. Add milk and mix until batter is smooth
3. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans
4. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cakes are springy to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean
5. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely

For the Filling:

1. Place jam in a medium skillet and warm over medium heat to loosen the consistency
2. Remove from heat and fold in the berries. Set aside to allow to marinate
3. In a chilled bowl, add cream and sugar and whisk with a mixer on medium speed until cream holds firm, shiny peaks

Create the cake:

1. Transfer one of the cooled cakes to a cake plate
2. Spread the berries over the top of the cake (you can reserve some of the berries for the top of the cake if you'd like)
3. Top the berries with the whipped cream using a spatula, starting from the center of the cake and smoothing out towards the edge (you can reserve some of the whipped cream for the top of the cake if you'd like)
4. Place the second cake on top
5. If you choose, place a light layer of whipped cream on top of the top layer of the cake, and then top with remaining berries.
6. Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust cake generously with confectioners' sugar
7. Your cake is ready to serve!