Victoria Sponge Filled with Jam and Buttercream - serves 8 - 10
Ingredients
- for the Cake
- 250g unrefined caster sugar
- 250g butter or margarine, at room temperature
- 5 medium eggs
- 125g gluten free flour
- 65g maize flour or cornflour
- 60g ground almonds
- 1 heaped tsp gluten free baking powder
- A few drops vanilla extract
- Jam of choice
- for the Buttercream
- 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 250g icing sugar
- Few drops vanilla extract
Need some advice on ingredients see -
The wheat, gluten and lactose free store cupboard
Method
Grease and line two 20cm / 8 inch cake tins.
Preheat oven to 190°c / 375°f / gas mark 5.
Combine the gluten free flour, maize flour, ground almonds and gluten free baking powder. Sieve together four times to fully distribute all of the ingredients.
Cream together the caster sugar and butter until light and fluffy. It is best to do this using a food mixer with a beater attachment or use a hand held electric mixer.
Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork.
Beat the egg into the creamed mixture a bit at a time making sure to beat in each addition properly before adding the next. If the mixture starts to split, mix in a spoonful of the flour.
Add the vanilla.
Fold in the flour with a large spoon.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until firm to touch and a knife inserted comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a plate then turn onto the cooling wire so the cake cools the right way up or it could break in half.
Buttercream
Beat the butter to soften using your food mixer.
Add the icing sugar and mix into the butter slowly.
Add the vanilla
Once the icing sugar is mixed into the butter, increase the speed and beat until light and fluffy.
Add a drop of water if the butter cream looks too firm.
Sandwich together with jam and buttercream or whipped double cream if you prefer.
Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar.
how to make this recipe dairy free...
Use dairy free margarine in place of butter in the sponge and fill with jam and dairy free butter cream or whipped soya cream.
Dairy Free Butter cream
125g dairy free margarine
500g icing sugar
few drops vanilla extract
Mix the icing sugar and vanilla into the dairy free margarine. Do not overbeat the mixture as it will split. Stir in a few drops of water until it reaches the required consistency.
You may think this is a lot of icing sugar. If you use double the amount of icing sugar to margarine, the mixture will split. Add a little extra flavouring to this buttercream.
Gem's hints and tips
In all recipes requiring self-raising gluten free flour, I advise sieving the flours together with the gluten free baking powder four times to make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
If you have made a cake that is really heavy with a solid lump of eggy mixture at the bottom one reason could be because the baking powder wasn’t mixed into the flour properly.
If you can’t find maize flour then cornflour is easily available and makes a good substitute. There isn’t much difference but I do prefer maize flour. See resources.
Gluten free cakes are best eaten fresh, they will keep well for a week. They can be frozen but the texture goes a bit grainy when defrosted.
Gluten free cakes are crumblier than other cakes but taste just as good. To cut neat slices, dip a sharp knife in hot water and wipe clean between slices.
Why not try…
For chocolate Victoria sponge substitute 35g gluten free flour with cocoa powder.
