Last week I made a well received Victoria Sandwich for my husband's birthday. (He has slightly "old lady" tastes, with the exception of his young wife, clearly...) Last year I used Delia's recipe and this year it was Mary Berry - just ensure your recipe comes from a British "mature" lady and you should be fine. This week we upgraded the cake for Wimbledon, using the same cake recipe from Mary Berry but with cream cheese in the filling to make it more robust and lots of fresh strawberries. This was inspired by something we watched on Asian Food Channel. It's definitely a winner, and ideal if you are entertaining over the tennis season!
What you need:
4 eggs
8oz caster sugar
8oz self-raising flour, sieved
2 tsp baking powder, sieved
8oz soft butter at room temperature, plus a little extra to grease the tins
1/2 cup strawberry jam.
500g strawberries
125g cream cheese (half a pack)
1/3 cup sugar
1.5 cups whipping cream
50g icing sugar to dust the cake
Method:
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Find two identical 20 inch cake tins and cut a perfect circle of greaseproof paper out to line each bottom. Then grease the sides with butter.
Ensure your butter is at room temperature. Cut it into small pieces to speed this up if necessary - doesn't take long in this heat.
Sieve your flours and sugar too, as I find it has the tendency to form lumps in this heat & humidity. Combine your eggs, self raising flour, baking powder and butter (at room temperature) in a glass bowl and mix on a low speed until just combined. Do not overmix!
Pour equal amounts of the mixture into the two cake tins and bake at 175c for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Try not to open the oven door before the 20 minutes to sneak a peak!
Allow the cakes to cool completely in their tins before you finish off the cake.
Hull your strawberries, wash them and pat try. Mix half of them with the jam.
Break up your cream cheese into lumps and combine with whipping cream and sugar. Mix with an electric whisk until the cream thickens and the cream cheese lumps have gone. You will just have to keep trying it!
Take one of your cakes and turn it upside down onto a plate. Smear 2/3 of the cream mixture on top, and all the strawberry & jam mixture. Ensure there are sufficient strawberries at the side to poke out. Place the other cake, right way up, on top, and smear cream over it, but not right up to the sides. Pile your remaining strawberries on top and sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve.
Serve immediately. You can keep it in the fridge afterwards for a couple of days maximum if there is any left!