Victoria Sponge With Jemma's Homemade Damson Jam

Continuing with my love of all things sweet- I've continued with a baking theme and here's my first attempts at making my first ever Victoria Sponge. A British classic and a real favourite with my grandparents.

My friend Jemma has a love for fruit and what she can do with it. Whether it's homemade fruit wines or jam's and preserve she always has a great idea for something that's either in season or coming into season. I recently announced my plans to make a Victoria sponge and she almost instantly provided a jar of her home-made damson jam on the pretext that she tasted the finished article.

My Victoria Sponge with Jemma's Home-made Damson Jam.

My Victoria Sponge with whipped double cream and damson jam

My simple Victoria Sponge cake recipe

I used a 20 cm sandwich tin although anything between 18-24 cm sandwich tins are ideal. 

Ingredients for the sponge cake

200 g Self-raising flour

200 g Caster Sugar

200 g Unsalted butter

4 Medium-large free-range eggs. 

1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla coffee syrup

For serving

Whipped double cream

Jemma's (or your own!) damson jam

Icing sugar for dusting the cake top

Ready for tea- my Victoria Sponge with Jemma's damson jam.

Recipe instructions- How I made my Victoria sponge

1. I preheated my oven to 190 Celsius (Gas mark 5 or 375 Fahrenheit).
2. Lightly greased two 20 cm sandwich tins. Then cut out greaseproof paper the size of the circular bases to fit inside. 
3. In a large bowl I beat together the sugar and butter until well creamed together before adding the vanilla extract.
4. I then beat together the four eggs in a separate small bowl before bit-by-bit combining them with the creamed mixture before stirring in the flour.
5. The resultant mixture was split between my two sandwich tins and spread to fall flat along the base of the tins.
6. The tins were then baked for 25 minutes until the tops were a golden brown
7. After allowing to cool I snapped open the sandwich tins before turning out onto a wire rack to further cool. 
8. I then spread a generous layer of Jemma's damson jam over the flat side of one of the sponges (After having removed the greaseproof paper) and a generous layer of whipped cream over the other half up to about 1 cm from the edge of the round to allow it to push outwards before placing the sponges together.
9. I then sprinkled a generous amount of icing sugar over the top for decorative effect.
10. Store in the fridge due to your fresh cream

Make sure you store your Victoria sponge in the fridge due to the whipped fresh cream.

My Victoria Sponge with damson jam in the fridge- For now!