Victoria Sponge with Raspberry Icing

I made this recipe thinking of my neighbour’s little girl. I think that this is a child’s type of cake, the colours, and the dream like look. The wonderful thing about baking for children is that they show straight away whether they like it or not. I chose the icing with the fruit for colouring as well as flavour because I am not too keen on artificial food colouring.

I recommend you bake it when you have children around or for when you fancy a girly tea session with loads of sweet treats and no guilt. This is a cake to have fun with. The sponge is really delicious and I felt like a little girl as I tucked into the layers of naughtiness.

200g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs lightly beaten

200g butter, softened

200g sugar

2 tablespoons milk, room temperature

Pre-heat the oven to a temperature of 190oC. Grease two 17.5cm tins and line the bottom with parchment paper. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat them until a soft mixture is achieved.

Divide the mixture equally amongst the two prepared tins. Smooth the top and bake in the middle shelf for approximately 20 min. Let it cool in the tin form approximately 10min.

Icing:

190g sugar

190g unsalted butter, softened

100g raspberries

In a bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar together until creamy. In a separate bowl sieve the raspberries. Incorporate the sieved raspberries to the butter and icing sugar mixture and mix well until the colour has changed – you can add it gradually until you achieve the colour you like.

Place one of the cakes on a stand and spread the icing thickly over it. I also threw the pulp over the icing so that there was no waste. Place the other half of the cake on top and dust it with icing sugar. To finish it off put raspberries on top and serve straight away.