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Dairy
Medium
1 Hour
Diets 
This traditional sponge cake tastes great decorated with a choice of fillings such as vanilla buttercream, whipped cream, lemon curd or jam. This recipe proves that you needn’t be an experienced baker to make a bakery-worthy cake.
225 grams (8 ounces) butter (salted or unsalted), softened – I leave mine out at room temperature overnight to ensure it’s soft enough
225 grams (8 ounces) caster or granulated sugar
4 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
225 grams (8 ounces) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon Gefen Vanilla Extract
4 tablespoons milk or water
3–4 tablespoons raspberry or strawberry jam such as Tuscanini Fruit Spread (try not to use too much otherwise it might spill out)
1/2 batch my Vanilla Buttercream or 150 ml (5 oz) double cream, for whipping (both optional)
icing sugar, for dusting
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 5 (190 degrees Celsius / 170 degrees Celsius Fan). Line the base of two eight-inch (20-centimeter) cake tins with parchment paper and grease the sides of the tin.
In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together for about two to three minutes until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition – if the mixture looks curdled, add a bit of the flour. Next mix through the vanilla extract.
Now gently fold through the flour and mix until no lumps of flour remain. Add enough water/milk to loosen the cake batter slightly (I added four tablespoons of water to my cake batter. We’ve found adding water instead of milk produces a lighter cake).
Evenly divide the cake batter between the cake tins, leave a small dip in the centre of each cake to encourage even rising.
Bake the cakes for 20–30 minutes (it takes around 25 minutes in my oven) or until the tops have turned a light golden colour and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre of one of the cakes. Only test one cake as this will become the base layer and the other cake will be the top layer on show.
Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then carefully run a knife around the sides of the tin and release the cakes from their tins. Peel the parchment paper carefully off the base of each cake and leave the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack, base side down.
Once cool, fill the cake with raspberry jam and sandwich the two cake halves together. Dust the top with icing sugar and serve. The cake will keep at room temperature covered for up to three days. Generally this cake only lasts a day or so in our house!
This recipe originally appeared on WhatJessicaBaked.com.
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Measurements Is there a way to post size measurements rather than weight ones? Not all of us use kitchen scales. Thanks.
I hear… It depends where the recipe originated. European ones tend to have this style. It’s actually more accurate and the numbers on the packaging helps.