Paul Hollywood's Victoria Sandwich
Category: Cakes and Bakes
Servings
Serves 8
Ingredients
Ingredients
4 free-range eggs
225g/8oz caster sugar, plus a little extra for dusting the finished cake
225g/8oz self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
225g/8oz baking spread, margarine or soft butter at room temperature, plus a little extra to grease the tins
To serve
200g good-quality strawberry or raspberry jam
whipped double cream (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Grease and line 2 x 20cm/8in sandwich tins: use a piece of baking
or silicone paper to rub a little baking spread or butter around
the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated.
Line the bottom of the tins with a circle of baking or silicone
paper (to do this, draw around the base of the tin onto the paper
and cut out).
Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour,
baking powder and baking spread.
Mix everything together until well combined. The easiest way to do
this is with an electric hand mixer, but you can use a wooden
spoon. Put a damp cloth under your bowl when you’re mixing to stop
it moving around. Be careful not to over-mix – as soon as
everything is blended you should stop. The finished mixture should
be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency – it should fall off a spoon
easily.
Divide the mixture evenly between the tins: this doesn’t need to be
exact, but you can weigh the filled tins if you want to check. Use
a spatula to remove all of the mixture from the bowl and gently
smooth the surface of the cakes.
Place the tins on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25
minutes. Don't be tempted to open the door while they're cooking,
but after 20 minutes do look through the door to check them.
The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from
the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check – they should be
springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and set aside to
cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded
butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn
the cakes out onto a cooling rack.
To take your cakes out of the tins without leaving a wire rack mark
on the top, put the clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand
onto the tea towel and turn the tin upside-down. The cake should
come out onto your hand and the tea towel – then you can turn it
from your hand onto the wire rack.
Set aside to cool completely.
To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and
spread it with plenty of jam. If you want to, you can spread over
whipped cream too.
Top with the second cake, top-side up. Sprinkle over the caster
sugar.
Per serving including 100g jam for middle:
522 cals
27g fat
14g saturated fat
0.9g salt
67g carbohydrates
44g sugar
1g fibre

