Spring and royal celebrations call for classic British bakes and snacks, and I love whipping up this simple Victoria sponge which goes down a treat with a cup of tea!

This is my family’s favourite cake, a classic Victoria sponge adapted from Delia Smith’s all-in-one sponge recipe. Rather than add all the ingredients together as Delia, does I prefer to take a tiny bit of extra time as below because the Kate is definitely all the lighter and airier for it.

Ingredients

• 175g self raising flour, sifted
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 175g soft margarine or butter, at room temperature
• 175g of caster sugar
• 3-4 drops pure vanilla essence

To finish:

• One tub of double cream
• Jam of your choice, my favourite is raspberry
• Sifted icing sugar

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark three, 325°F, 170° C.
2. Take to 20 cm sponge, tins, lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper.
3. Take a large roomy mixing bowl and mix together, the butter, or margarine and the sugar with a hand held electric whisk (or whatever gadget you use for baking) until it’s a pale creamy consistency.
4. In another bowl, sift the flour and baking powder into it, holding the sieve  high to give the flour  a good airing.
5. In another bowl or jug, whisk your eggs with a fork and add the vanilla extract.
6. Take your bowl with the margarine and sugar mix, and add a quarter of the flour and baking powder  mix  and whisk until combined then add  a  quarter of the   egg mixture and continue this until everything is well combined 
7. If the mixture doesn’t drop of a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, add one or 2 teaspoons of tap, one water and whisk again. 
8. Now divide the mixture between the two prepared tins level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 30 minutes then test with a clean cocktail stick if it comes out clean it’s ready. I test mine after about 25 minutes and keep checking every few minutes or so as different oven temperatures will cook cakes more or less quickly. This last 10 minutes as a crucial time don’t go off and do something else. Keep checking!
9. Tip if the cake is starting to brown at the edges, but isn’t cooked in the middle take some tinfoil or baking parchment, cut  a big hole in the middle and carefully place it over the tin in the oven. This way the edges will stop browning.
10. When the cakes are cooked, some people like to leave them in the tin only for 30 seconds, while I leave mine in the tins until they’re ready to sandwich together. Loosen the edges with a pallet, knife and carefully turn the cakes out onto a wire cooling rack, carefully peel off the paper when the cakes are completely cool, sandwich them together with the jam and fresh cream and dust the top with icing sugar.