Nan’s Victoria Sponge

This is my Nan’s victoria sponge recipe, it's super simple, always gives decent results, nicely fills two 8 inch cake tins and is the starting point for every sponge style cake that I ever make.

For the cake you will need:
8oz (roughly 225g) caster sugar
8oz (roughly 225g) butter
8oz (roughly 225g) self raising flour
3 large eggs, beaten

For the buttercream you will need:
12oz (roughly 340g) icing sugar
6oz (roughly 160g) butter
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

6 tbsp apricot jam (approx)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Add the sugar and butter to a fairly large bowl and cream together until fluffy.
3. Add in the flour and fold until combined.
4. Add the egg, a little at a time, folding in until fully combined.
5. Pour the mix into 2 lined 8 inch cake tins and bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and a cocktail stick comes out clean.
6. Once cooked, turn out of the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
7. In a large bowl cream the icing sugar, butter and vanilla essence together until smooth.
8. Once the cakes are completely cool spread the jam onto one of the cakes, top with the buttercream and sandwich with the second cake on top.
9. (Optional) Sprinkle the top with a little caster or icing sugar for decoration.

Notes:
Believe it or not these cakes actually freeze really well. Once completely cooled, rather than filling, wrap the cake in cling film, place into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 months. My Nan would use a slightly modified, and scaled up, version of this recipe to make large batches of cupcakes, freeze them and simply get one out, before putting the kettle on, to have alongside her cup of tea. My Nan always insisted on using buttercream, NEVER fresh whipped cream, and apricot jam as the filling, anything else just wasn’t right.