Classic Victoria sandwich

After living in UK from last 4 years, I have seen the love and respect people have for the royal family. And I was have witnessed the celebrations among locals here and have seen how everyone is very enthusiastic about the royal celebrations of the country. Last summer, it was the royal wedding of prince William and Kate and very shop here sold souvenirs of many kinds. Every shop had something special for the celebrations and even at schools the kids got to celebrate it by having a royal wedding tea party. My toddler stills recalls those celebration because he adores the prince and his wife and what more..he was lucky enough to even meet the Duchess of Cambridge at his school :)


There he is lifting his hand and waving(second from left) Pic courtesy :BBC news

This Summer marked Queen Elizabeth II Diamond jubilee celebrations. The Diamond jubilee marked Queen Elizabeth's 60 years as queen and she is the second longest reigning monarch of United Kingdom after Queen Victoria. And it was so exciting to see people wear clothes that had red , blue and white, the street parties and the food with union jacks and crowns on it. It was a memorable event for everyone here and more for us because we will be leaving UK in couple of weeks. We will definitely miss this country and the lovely people we met here.

Coming to the recipe, I decided to bake the most iconic cake in Britain the 'Victoria sandwich' or 'Victoria sponge' which is named after Queen Victoria, which she loved having it with her afternoon tea. A classic Victoria sponge consists of jam and whipped cream or vanilla buttercream sandwiched between two sponges. Whenever I have bought this cake, I have found it containing the butter cream. Maybe because it will have a longer shelf life. But I opted for whipped cream filling as my son loved it. But I have also written the recipe for the vanilla cream.



CLASSIC VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE
Recipe source: BBC Good Food

Ingredients:

For the cake:
200 grams /1 1/2 cup self raising flour
200 grams /1 cup caster sugar
200 grams softened butter- at room temperature
4 eggs- beaten
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder

For filling:
200 ml double cream
300 grams strawberry jam
icing sugar for dusting.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 190 C / 375 F. Butter 2 sandwich tins and line it with a nonstick baking paper. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Now add the remaining ingredients and and beat till well incorporated and you get a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture equally between the prepared tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

For the filling, whip the cream till soft peaks and spread it over the bottom of one of the sponges, top it with strawberry jam and sandwich the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.



Notes:

If you don't have sandwich tin, you can bake it in any round cake tin and slice it into layers to add the filling.

There are many other options for the filling like you can replace the whipped cream with buttercream or lemon curd. And also you can replace the strawberry jam with raspberry jam. Below is the recipe for the buttercream filling.

For the butter cream filling :

Ingredients:
100g butter - softened
140g icing sugar - sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually beat in icing sugar and vanilla extract until you get a smooth cream.

Sending this celebration cake to Jagruti's event- Celebrate Diamond Jubilee.

English Trifle

This was the first time I tried my hands on Trifle, though I have eaten it soo many times. I had never imagined making one at home...But I liked it more than the store brought ones ;)

ENGLISH TRIFLE

Ingredients:
Pound cake/ trifle sponge,
2-3 tbsp strawberry jam,
16 oz whipped cream,
400 g of fresh strawberries,
1 tsp sugar,
1 cup water and
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

For Custard:
1 1/2 cup sugar,
1/4 cup sugar,
2 tbsp cornstarch,
2 egg yolks and
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Method:
For the custard,in a bowl incorporate the sugar, cornstarch and beaten egg yolks with some milk to make a smooth paste without lumps. In a saucepan bring the remaining milk to boil, remove the milk away from heat and add the above paste to it very slowly, incorporating it with the milk. Return the saucepan and cook over very low heat until the mixture thickens, add vanilla extract. Keep aside to cool until ready to use.
Cut some strawberries into halves and add 2-3 tbsp of sugar to it and refrigerate for 30 minutes until ready to use.
Traditionally sherry is sprinkled on the trifle sponge to make it moist. But..as I don't use it, I made a syrup by mixing 1 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract with 1 cup of water.Mix well till sugar dissolves and keep aside.
Cut the trifle sponge /pound cake into slices and place them on the base of a glass bowl. Now sprinkle some vanilla syrup on them and spread the strawberry jam on the slices. Now arrange and with the refrigerated strawberries .Pour custard on these strawberries and finally spread a layer of whipped cream. Garnish with whipped cream and some fresh strawberries.

The trifle can also be arranged in single serving bowls like in the picture on the right side :)






This is my entry for Simran's AWED- Britain started by DK of Chef In You.