Keeping It Classic: Victoria Sponge

The other day I decided to create a cake for my local Salvation Army to celebrate Andy Peddle's visit.  Now Andy Peddle is doing a walkathon but not just like any other... he is doing a staggering 8,700 miles to each Salvation Army church, life house, charity shop and every league football club, all throughout the UK... If that isn't impressive enough he is 70 years of age! 
When I heard along the grapevine he was going to popping to the local centre, I knew I had to honor the visit by making something. I heard he was going to be stopping in for a cup of tea, so I decided to bake a cake for all to enjoy and played it relatively safe with a Classic Victoria Sponge. Baking really does sooth me therefore on the Saturday evening I got all the ingredients out ready to create! 
For the cake
200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 beaten eggs
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk  The filling 100g butter or marg  140g icing sugar   drop vanilla extract (I always use Neilsen-Massey Vanilla Bean paste) 340g strawberry jam icing sugar 
First thing I did was got all my ingredients measured out, then pre heated the oven to 190C and prepared two 20cm sandwich tins. Once this was sorted I began mixing all the items needed for the cake together until it was a smooth batter.
I split the mixture evenly between the two cake tins and popped them into the oven, I cooked these for 20 minutes then put them on a cooling rack. 
Now the next part is always my most favorite part, because it tastes amazing and really seals the deal with a well made Victoria Sponge...that's right its the filling!
I started by beating the butter until it was completely creamy then introduced the sugar and Neilsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste...just to add I did pop a little amount in my cake mixture too. Once my cakes were cool enough I used a spatula and spread the butter cream over the bottom of one of the sponges, on went the jam and then last but not least the other sponge placed on top.

I placed the cake on my cake stand and finished it off by sprinkling icing sugar on the top.  Ta-da! So there you have it my victoria sponge! It's always great to try new things with cooking, but we have classics for a reason and this type of cake is a true classic! 
A slice and a pot of tea? Oh go on then!