Spelt and rice flour Victoria Sponge

There really is nothing nicer when friends come to visit than a Victoria sponge. It might be traditional but it’s yummy none the less, and in this family at least one of the teens will eat it for breakfast if there are no brioches around too!

Ingredients:

175 gms olive oil spread

175 gms sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

100 gms spelt flour

75 gms rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

Strawberry jam to fill

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees fan, 190 degrees conventional

2.       Cream the fat and sugar together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.

3.       Break three eggs into a small jug, add the vanilla essence and whisk until the mixture will pour easily.

4.       Mix the egg into the creamed sugar and fat a tiny bit at a time. This is important and the reason why I use a jug. If you add too much the mixture curdles. By using a jug you can dribble the egg mixture into the bowl as slowly as you want.

5.       Mix the flours and baking powder and fold gently into the mixture a little at a time. The trick here is to keep the mixture light and not destroy any of the bubbles that have formed.

6.       Line two 15cm sponge tins with baking parchment – I use pre-formed liners as it makes this bit less fiddly and divide the sponge mixture roughly equally between them.

7.       Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for 25 minutes until the tops are golden and the sponge bounces back if pressed gently on the top.

8.       Turn out of the tins and place on a rack to cool. Then sandwich together with liberal amounts of strawberry jam. 

Of course, the problem comes when you just can’t wait for the sponge to cool properly. Then you spread the jam, pop on the top and wait while the jam gently oozes down the sides of the sponge. It might not be WI perfect but it looks scrumptious.