The Victoria Sponge

Preheat the oven to 180oc . Put the softened butter into a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in the castor sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a small bowl beat all 4 eggs until well mixed, add the vanilla essence and combine well. Slowly add the beaten egg into the main mix (make sure all the egg is beaten in before adding anymore) Once half the egg mixture is cooperated add 2tbs of the flour to help prevent the mixture from curdling.

Once all the egg is combined into the mix gently fold in the remaining flour and add the milk. Now transfer the mixture evenly into two 20cm sandwich tins which should be greased and lined with parchment paper. Make sure to spread the mixture evenly in the tins making sure all the edges are filled.

Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until the top is golden. To check the cake has fully baked insert a skewer into the centre of each mix, if the skewer comes out clean you know its baked, if the skewer holds some mixture bake for a further 2 minutes and keep checking. The sponges should be springing when you gently press the centres of the cake,

Remove from the oven and run a round bladed knife around the outside of the tins to loosen the sponges then leave on the side to cool for 10 minutes. Finally turn out onto a wire rack so the flat sides are facing upwards.

When the sponges are cooling make the butter icing up. Cream the softened butter into a mixing bowl until smooth. Gradually and carefully add the icing sugar and mix until well combined, The mixture should be firm and not runny if the mixture is too runny it wont set on the cake. So only add the milk if the mixture looks too hard. Then finally add the vanilla.

On one of the sponges carefully spread over the jam. On the other sponge place just less than half of the icing mixture into the centre of the sponge and evenly spread out covering the whole sponge. Then place the two sponges together and spread the remaining butter icing on top of the cake. Leave the cake to set for at least an hour as this gives the icing chance to harden.