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Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The traditional decoration (if you can go as far as to call it that) for a Victoria Sponge Cake is a simple dusting of either icing sugar or caster sugar. You can upgrade this by using a stencil or a doily to make a pattern on top with the icing sugar if you like. Many bakers have decorated this cake in much more elaborate and creative ways too. Adding extra rosettes of whipped cream on top is very common, as is adding fresh strawberries or raspberries. Ultimately, if you're going to be eating it, then it's up to you how you decorate it! How to make a Victoria Sponge Cake In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the butter (or baking spread) and caster sugar together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Then mix in the eggs and vanilla extract, again using an electric mixer. You can do this by hand, but electric mixers will give better results and speed up the process. Then gently whisk or fold in the self raising flour by hand. Divide the mixture between the tins, you can use scales for accuracy to get an even amount of mixture in each one. When lining the tins, I line the bottom with greaseproof baking paper, and grease the sides lightly with butter or margarine. There are a few reasons for this, the main reason is the oven temperature being too high. Ovens vary massively and often the temperature on the dial is not the true temperature inside the oven. You can get an oven thermometer to verify this. Domed tops can also occur if too much raising agent is used, or if the cake tin is smaller than the recipe recommends. Variations

If you are using butter, you need to remove it from the fridge a while before you start baking so that it can soften. You want it to be soft enough so that you can easily press it between your fingertips, but it is still malleable. This could take as little as 20 minutes on a warm day, or up to an hour on a cooler day. The method Add the zest of two lemons to the batter, then use lemon curd instead of jam. You could also try another tangy fruit curd like blood orange or passion fruit.Level off the cakes with a knife or cake leveller, then spread the jam over the first layer. Use a piping bag and nozzle to pipe the whipped cream on top, but you could spread or dollop on with a spoon too. Then add the second sponge and dust it with icing sugar.

Caster sugar - also known as super fine sugar, you can also use granulated sugar if you don't have caster sugar, or even golden caster sugar For me, the best and most delicious way to fill a Victoria Sponge Cake is with jam (either strawberry or raspberry, but I do prefer strawberry) and fresh whipped cream. It seems that many people share this opinion, as it is a very popular filling. However, there are two other options, and everyone's got their opinion on which filling is correct and what their favourite is! One of the other options is to fill it with only jam, and in fact the Women's Institue insist on a raspberry jam only filling when you enter their baking competitions! The third option is to fill with jam of your choice and buttercream, which results in a sweeter cake. Which filling will you choose? To decorate or not to decorate?Whip the cream with a whisk or electric handheld mixer until it forms soft peaks when the whisk is removed. It was named after Queen Victoria as she used to enjoy a slice with her afternoon tea. It is also known as a Victoria Sandwich Cake, and it is famous for being the cake to test your oven with. In the Great British Bake Off, a Victoria Sponge Cake is made in all of the ovens before the contestants start baking. This type of cake became popular when baking powder was invented, giving it a lovely rise and soft sponge like texture. The creaming method or the all in one method? Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consistency.

Self raising flour is flour with a raising agent, and sometimes a little salt, already added to it. Therefore when using it, you don't need to add baking powder to your recipe. You cannot substitute self raising flour for plain flour, however you can easily make your own self raising flour using plain flour. Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line two 8" cake tins (that are at least 2" deep). I line the base with greaseproof paper and lightly grease the sides with butter For the full recipe with measurements, head to the recipe card at the end of this post. Do you need an electric mixer to make this recipe? Butter - the butter or baking spread must be softened, which means at room temperature. You can use either salted or unsalted butter

Again, this is more of an opinion and taste lead decision as it really depends what you prefer. I made the pictured cake using unsalted butter, but I have made many Victoria Sponge Cakes in the past with margarine, or baking spread, and had brilliant results. I always use Stork as I find it very easy to use because it's so soft straight from the fridge. I also find that Stork is more consistent and reliable in creating light and moist cakes every time.