This recipe is just the standard recipe everyone in the world knows how to make and I use and adapt if for everything. It’s the first cake you make and once you crack it you are set for baking forever.
Ingredients
4 eggs (free range or organic if you can afford it)
225g sugar caster
225g self-raising flour
225g butter or margarine
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Method
- Ideally use a round tin but you can use any including cup cake tin or just the cases
- Grease the tin by dipping a bit of kitchen roll in the butter and covering the inside of the tin lightly
- Set the oven to 180 degrees c
- Mix all the ingredients together and beat well. You don’t need to cream the butter, just mix well
- Pour the mixture into the tin leaving a slight dip in the middle as it will rise higher there
- Cook for about 20 minutes until light and golden. It’s done if you stab the middle of the cake with something sharp and there’s no batter mixture on the stick. Cocktail sticks are good. It’s better to cook slowly and make sure the cake is cooked through than quickly. Also, if the cake starts to brown too much put some baking paper on the top to protect it
- Let the cake cook and slice in half through the middle if you used the round tin
- Victorian sponges are traditionally filled with jam and cream and a sprinkling of cater sugar on the top but make sure the cake is really cool so the cream doesn’t melt
- This cake batter can be used for anything. Just add cocoa powder to make chocolate or any flavourings you like such as coffee or lavender
My simple cake tin if you’d like it:
the modern mrs beeton 