
I made this rustic, Pinterest inspired cake for my Grandmother’s birthday a few months back which she absolutely loved and when I posted a picture of it on instagram it seemed to be very popular on there too! So today I thought I’d share my fail-safe recipe for a Victoria sponge cake and also some tips and tricks for making it look rustic + pretty!
Ingredients
8oz butter or margarine
8oz caster sugar
6 medium sized, room temperature eggs
12oz self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large pot double cream
Strawberry or raspberry jam
Mixed berries of your choice
Selection of fresh flowers
Equipment
3 sandwich cake tins (I used 9 inch tins, but you could use any size)
Cake board or large plate
Food mixer or processor
This recipe makes a sort of double batch of cake mix – so you will have some left over after you’ve filled the cake tins. I just made some simple cupcakes with the rest of the mixture – but you could use more sandwich tins to make the cake taller. It’s up to you!
For the fresh flowers, theres no need to go out and buy a huge bunch of flowers from the supermarket just for this cake. I actually found (or you could say foraged!) these flowers in my back garden, so get a bit creative and see what you can find on your own doorstep!
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees & grease the sandwich tins with a little oil or butter. If you have it, some baking parchment at the bottom of the tin will really help!
- Cream together the butter & sugar until the mixture is completely combined. You want it to become really creamy & lose the sugary texture.
- Gradually add in the eggs & flour whilst mixing. Add in the vanilla essence and baking powder after it’s all combined & continue to mix on a low speed.
- Pour your mixture equally into the tins and smooth the tops with a knife. Pop into the oven for around 15 minutes & then check to see if they are cooked through. They may need another 5 minutes but it’ll just depend on your oven.
- While the cakes are cooling, whip together the double cream with a little bit of caster sugar (around a tbsp). You want it to be quite firm – if your cakes haven’t cooled enough yet by the time you’ve made the cream pop it into the fridge for a while. You don’t want it to go runny!
- Now it’s time to build the cake. Place the bottom cake on the plate or cake board & spread over some jam and then a layer of cream. Continue like this on the other layers & then top the cake with a thicker layer of cream.
- Now it’s time to decorate! As you are working with fresh cream, I’d recommend working relatively quickly before the cream melts. But not to worry – it is really quite simple to make these rustic-style cakes look pretty!
- In terms of decoration tips – I started with the largest flower as the centre-piece of the cake and then just sort of worked my way out from there. I liked scattering the blueberries in any open areas as I thought it looked pretty but a bit effortless at the same time!
- I also stuck on some berries and flowers with a little bit of icing that I quickly mixed up (just icing sugar + water) onto the cake board to finish off the look of the cake.
- I’d advise keeping the cake in the fridge until you plan on tucking into it – you don’t want that cream to start running! Other than that, you’re all done. It may look like a really elaborate cake but it is quite simple, it’s just all about the decoration.
Let me know if you give it a go! I think it’s a great option as a birthday cake for someone who isn’t a big fan of super sweet icing or just as a special afternoon tea treat. If you’re interested in baking take a look at my pinterest board here for lots of inspiration for future bakes!
This looks so good, might have to try it but my baking skills aren’t the greatest haha
http://www.zekalin.com
This is gorgeous, they should did a Victoria Sponge in the Bake Off technical challenge and this knocks the socks off all of theirs. Beautiful! I wish I could eat my screen xxx
ALittleKiran | Bloglovin
This looks simply incredible! x
http://www.aimeroseblog.com
This looks amazing and so tasty!
theButter.co.uk
So lovely! Beautiful photographs to accompany the beautiful cake. I will surely be taking your recipe. Thanks for sharing!
http://www.patriciastelmach.co.uk
Looks sooooo good!!! I am defintiely going to try and make it.
Zeynab x
The Beauty Load