This British-inspired Victoria Sponge Sandwich Cake is my spin on the a classic. It includes layers of cake filled with rich vanilla pudding, strawberries and topped with fresh whipped cream and is the perfect Sunday afternoon treat or Spring-time dessert!
Easter is a holiday that I just can’t seem to decide how I want to celebrate. I grew up Catholic, so that part of me knows the “real” meaning of the holiday. Jesus gave his life for us and on Easter He rises to Heaven. It’s some pretty amazing, deep stuff to think about… and should be celebrated!
But, since I’m not a practicing Catholic anymore, I find myself questioning the reasons to celebrate Easter. I am not the type of parent that can rationalize spending tons of money on an Easter basket for my kids full candy and toys they’ll probably never play with. And I just don’t think that visiting the Easter bunny at the mall for some cheesy staged photo is worth my time. I just can’t wrap my brain around all the hype surrounding Easter when the focus isn’t on the true meaning.
So, what’s left?
Family.
If I’m not going to celebrate Easter for it’s true meaning and I’m not filling my kids with Easter candy… I will use this day to spend quality time with those l love, to cook and bake for them and to enjoy their joy when we share a meal together.
This year, my family includes my husband who is recently home from Afghanistan and my best friend Chasity and her family. Chasity is moving soon so this may be our last holiday together.
I knew that I needed to make something amazingly delicious for dessert this year. Chasity requested strawberries & cream to be included in the dessert so I started researching recipes to use. I have always wanted to try Mary Berry’s recipe for Victoria Sponge, so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity!
This Victoria Sponge Sandwich Cake has two layers of Mary Berry’s cake recipe. Since this is a British recipe for cake, I knew it wouldn’t be like the American cakes I was used to eating. Mary’s cake is less sweet but perfect when paired with the pudding and strawberries of the filling.
A traditional sponge cake is just filled with jam and topped with powdered sugar. But, I wanted to liven things up a bit, so I filled my cake with jam, berries and pudding then topped it all with whipped cream and more berries. SUBLIME!
Matty loved it. He was first at the table to get his slice!
When I served the cake, my family requested more of the filling to pile on top of their slice! So make sure you reserve the extra fillings after you assemble the cake to serve with the finished cake to your guests!
I will definitely make this cake again… I think next time I may even try a blueberry filling. Yum!
Happy Baking!
Victoria Sponge Sandwich Cake
Ingredients
Victoria Sponge Cake
- 225g (about 1 cup) unsalted butter, soft
- 225g ( about 1 cup) granulated or caster sugar
- 225g (about 2 cups) all purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 5 medium eggs or 4 large eggs or 8oz eggs
Vanilla Pudding Filling
- 1 package Jell-O Cook & Serve Vanilla Pudding (NOT instant)
- 3 cups heavy cream or half & half or whole milk (NOT skim, low-fat, 1% or 2% milk)
Strawberry Filling
- 3 cups strawberries, cleaned and quartered before measuring
- 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like it more sweet!)
- Zest of 1 large lemon
- Juice of 1/2 large lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- dash cinnamon
- dash nutmeg
- 5-6 strawberries, stems removed & sliced (reserve for assembly)
Whipped Cream Topping
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4 Tbsp granulated or caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 5-6 whole strawberries with stems/leaves (for garnish)
- Lemon zest (for garnish)
- Powdered sugar( for garnish)
Instructions
Victoria Sponge Cake
- Preheat oven to 355F degrees.
- Grease & flour 8in cake pan and line with parchment paper.
- Measure/weigh your ingredients and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy - about 3-5 minutes.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt 3-4 times until completely incorporated.
- Add the flour to the butter/sugar and mix until just combined.
- Mix in the almond extract.
- One at a time, add the eggs and mix well after each addition.
- After all the eggs have been added, mix about 2 minutes on medium-high speed until the mixture is smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure everything has been incorporated.
- Divide the batter evenly and spread into prepared pans.
- Bake about 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. NOTE: DO NOT open the oven to check on these cakes. Let them bake the entire 25 minutes before opening the oven to check done-ness. The cakes will collapse if a sudden rush of cool air hits them before they are fully baked.
- Cool in pans for 1 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before assembling.
Vanilla Pudding Filling
- In a medium pot, combine the contents of the vanilla pudding package and the heavy cream.
- Prepare as directed on the package.
- Pour into a glass bowl and place in the refrigerator until set - about 2 hours.
Strawberry Filling
- In a large pan over medium, mix together the prepared strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, spices and vanilla.
- Using a potato masher, mash the berries until only small pieces remain but most are broken down.
- Stir & cook for 2 minutes.
- Remove about 1/4 cup of the juice from the pan and place in a small bowl. Add the corn starch to the liquid and mix until smooth. Pour this mixture back into the berries and mix until incorporated.
- Cook strawberries another 1-3 minutes or until it has thickened.
- Remove from the pan into a glass bowl and place in refrigerator until cool - about 2 hours.
Whipped Cream Topping
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, pour in the heavy cream.
- Turn mixer on medium-high and beat the cream for about 30 seconds.
- One tablespoon at a time, drizzle in the sugar. Mix in the extract.
- Continue to beat on medium-high until soft peaks form and the cream holds it shape.
Assembly
- Once the cake layers are cool, the cake can be assembled. Place one layer of cake on a cake stand.
- Spread a layer of strawberry filling across the top of the cake, leaving 1/2in of cake uncovered along the edge of the cake. You'll use about 1/3 cup of strawberry filling. Arrange sliced strawberries on top of the filling and gently press down.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M star tip with the vanilla pudding. Pipe a layer of pudding over the strawberries. Use an offet spatula to gently spread the layer smooth.
- Place the second cake layer, top side down, onto the filling and GENTLY press.
- Dust the entire cake and cake stand with powdered sugar.
- Place a generous amount of whipped cream on the top of the cake in the center.
- Zest a lemon over the top of the whipped cream and cake.
- Arrange 5-6 whole strawberries on edges of the whipped cream to garnish.
- Keep cake chilled until ready to serve.
- Serve cake slices with extra vanilla pudding, strawberry filling and whipped cream topping.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Mary Berry
Oh Betsy this cake is gorgeous!! I love your honesty in this post too!!! š
Thanks Aimee… it’s something I struggle with every holiday season.
What a beautiful delicious looking cake! Perfect for warmer weather.
WOW, this cake looks delicious! I love the fresh strawberries and fresh whip cream topping, perfect cake for Spring! Pinned š
Thanks Jenn!
This cake is stunning!! I love how all of the different elements come together š
This looks gorgeous!! A classic like this always gets a thumbs up from me š
Hi Betsy
I’am Chantal from Travelling Papilles, I’am glad to find your beautiful blog and for stopped by here. I like your honesty and philosphy as well and… Your beautiful cake!
Your recipes will inspire me for sure.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
Chantal
Thanks Chantal! š
I’m British, and have made more Victoria Sponge’s than I care to think about. A biscuit to us is what you call a cookie, which we have with coffee and tea. A Victoria Sponge is just that, it’s like a piece of delicious, airy sweetness and as light as can be. If it’s tasting biscuit-like and firm to you, then you may be over mixing it, but we would absolutely NEVER call any kind of cake a biscuit. The best piece of advice I can give you is that weigh the ingredients for British baking – the cup measurements are just not accurate enough for baking this kind of cake, and a set of metric/British Imperial scales are not too expensive. I bake lots of American cakes, so am used to cup measurements, make my own cake flour etc and my recipe books of which I have too many have an equal balance between US/British.
Thanks for the feedback, Lesley!
I too am British, A Victoria sponge always uses the same amount of ingredients, so 8oz flour 8oz butter 8oz sugar 4 eggs, an egg should weigh around 2oz each but with all the different sizes we get today check, a little over is better than under. I only use baking piwder if I don’t have self raising flour and of course this would be the one ingredient also any flavouring like almond or vanilla you don’t use the same weight as the other stuff.
Thanks for the feedback Jayne! š For all the reasons you stated is why I said it was inspired by the Victoria Sponge Cake. I’ll have to try the 8oz, butter, flour, sugar and 4 eggs method with flavoring and see how it works out!
Hi Betsy,
Very pretty!
A classic Victoria sponge is actually filled with only strawberry jam (a little boring) and the modern version is filled with whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar. The trick to a perfect “traditional” cake is that each ingredient should weight the same. Weigh your eggs (in the shells) and then use the exact same amount of butter, sugar and self raising flour. I don’t think it’s traditional but I always add milk to keep it a little more soft.
Kelly- Thanks for the information! I’m always looking to learn more about what I’m baking. I used Mary Berry’s recipe for the cake and weighed it all out first then measured it in cups since I have mainly American readers. š Great tips about weighing them! Thank you!
Betsy
Oh my godness! It looks so tasty! The almost perfect spring recipe I quess š
Best wishes, Chrissi
it looks beautiful!
This cake is quite the show stopper! I can only imagine the oohs and aahs it received and then silence while everyone chowed down!
Thanks, Susan! Everyone loved it… even requested extra filling to slather on top of their piece of cake! hehe
Such a beautiful cake!! And that sweet little boy devouring the cake is pretty cute too! š
Awwww thanks Jocelyn! He is pretty sweet <3
Sorry I didn’t notice Kelly had already said what I did.
Btw the cake does look yummy.
Me again, I just checked for a Mary Berry VS and she uses equal amounts.
http://www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/great-british-bake-off-recipes/victoria-sandwich
Yes, she does! I liked to the recipe I used in my post and also listed the equal amounts in my recipe! Happy Baking, Jayne!
It really looks delicious! I have to try this sponge recipe.
Your photos are beautiful.
Thank you! š
Hi there! In the process of making this cake, for Easter no less. I couldn’t help but notice that the strawberry filling directions say to add sugar but no amount of sugar is listed above in the ingredients :-o. I guess I’ll just add to taste?
Oh my goodness, Kimby! I’m sorry for omitting that ingredient! Yes, typically when I make a filling like this, I start with about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of sugar and go from there. It really doesn’t change the texture or consistency of the filling… just depends on how sweet you want it!
I’m sorry to say I tried this recipe for my daughters second birthday and it did not turn out well. š I followed the instructions meticulously and it came out hard and dry and ultimately I was very disappointed. ????
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