Roasted strawberry Victoria sponge
Nicola Lamb is known for her obsessive and careful recipe development, not resting until she's found just the perfect sponge, tart or custard. Her Victoria sponge cake is no exception. The product of testing over 30 different recipes, this is one classic you'll come back to again and again.
Nicola says: 'This Victoria sponge breaks the mould of the classic equal parts sugar/flour/ butter/eggs. I made over 30 cakes to get the ratio just right. By replacing some of the butter with egg yolks and adding double cream, we get an extra-moist cake with good structure and lots of flavour. Reducing the butterfat also allows the other flavours, like the milkiness of the double cream, to come through, providing a wonderfully rich and tender backdrop for your cream and fruit. Roasted strawberries could be swapped for jam, but the rich syrup is unbeatable.'
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
Roasted strawberries
- 200g of strawberries
- 20g of caster sugar
Cake
- 200g of butter, softened
- 5g of flaky sea salt, about 1 1/2 tsp
- 245g of caster sugar
- 65g of double cream
- 160g of whole egg, about 3
- 35g of egg yolks, about 2
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or up to 2 tsp, good quality
- 90g of whole milk
- 245g of plain flour
- 17g of baking powder, about 4 tsp
- 25g of caster sugar
Whipped cream
- 200g of double cream
- 40g of crème fraîche, optional
- 15g of caster sugar, or up to 20g, optional
Plus
- icing sugar, to decorate, optional
Equipment
- 2 20cm cake tins
Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan
To make the roasted strawberries, wash the strawberries briefly and halve. If they’re small, just leave them whole. Toss with the sugar on a baking tray. Roast for 30–40 minutes until soft, syrupy and slightly shrunken. The strawberries will go a deeper shade of red. You can keep cooking them for up to an hour. Let them cool and move into a container with all the syrup. You can store them in the fridge for 3–5 days
- 200g of strawberries
- 20g of caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan and line the tins. Set aside
To make the cake, cream the soft butter with the salt and sugar for 2 minutes on a medium speed using a stand mixer. This is enough for the butter and sugar to aerate slightly and become a little paler, but not so much that it is whipped. It is better to err on the side of caution – we don't want too much air at this stage!
- 200g of butter, softened
- 5g of flaky sea salt, about 1 1/2 tsp
- 245g of caster sugar
Mix together the cream, whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract and milk. Set aside. Sift together the plain flour and baking powder. Set aside
- 65g of double cream
- 160g of whole egg, about 3
- 35g of egg yolks, about 2
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or up to 2 tsp, good quality
- 90g of whole milk
- 245g of plain flour
- 17g of baking powder, about 4 tsp
Starting with the liquid, alternate adding the liquid and dry ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar, in around three batches, scraping down as necessary
Divide the mixture between the two tins, around 475–500g per cake. Sprinkle one cake with the 25g sugar. This will be your top
- 25g of caster sugar
Bake for 25 minutes, then check if the sponge is golden and bouncy and pulling away from the sides slightly. Bake for an additional 5 minutes if it doesn't look or feel ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a rack
To make the filling, whip the cream with the crème fraîche, if using, and caster sugar, if using, to very soft peaks, then set aside
- 200g of double cream
- 40g of crème fraîche, optional
- 15g of caster sugar, or up to 20g, optional
Spread the cream filling over the unsugared sponge, leaving a 2–3cm border so it doesn’t splurge too much, followed by generous dollops of the roasted strawberries and their syrup. You may not need to use it all. As a splurging insurance policy, you can pop your assembled cake in the fridge or freezer to firm up the cream a bit
Place the sugared sponge on top. Sprinkle with icing sugar, if desired. Serve with any extra roasted strawberry syrup
- icing sugar, to decorate, optional
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