Red, White or Swiss - Victoria sponge with strawberries and cream

Zorra of Kochtopf is hosting Red, White or Swiss in honour of Swiss National Day on 1 August. Zorra is a homesick Swiss expat living in Spain, so this is a perfect event to help her celebrate her home country's national day. To participate is simple - make a dish which is red, white or Swiss and post about it.




I don't know much about Swiss cookery, so I have decided to make something red and white instead - in this case, a strawberry and cream-filled Victoria sponge from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

This cake ends up being very large - you almost need a jaw on a hinge to get your laughing gear around a slice of the finished product. It is also a rather dense, rich cake, not like the CWA ladies' sponges, so a small slice is very satisfying. However, it is delicious, and easy peasy to make, with the cake being mixed in the food processor (hooray!), so I recommend giving it a go.

The recipe for the cake is as follows:

225g butter, softened
225g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3-4 tablespoons milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tins with baking paper. Put all of the ingredients except the milk in the bowl of your food processor, then whizz it until smooth. Add the milk to the batter gradually through the top of the processor while pulsing it until you have a thick, soft cake batter.

Divide the batter between the 2 prepared tins, and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in their tins for about 10 minutes before unmoulding them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To fill the cakes:

Whip 125g of heavy cream with one tablespoon of icing sugar until it thickens to a stable consistency, but not stiff. Chop 125g (half a punnet) of strawberries in half. Spread the bottom cake with about 4 tablespoons of a red jam of your choice (I used a lovely organic blackberry jam, which is a very dark red), then spread the whipped cream over the jam, and place the halved strawberries on top of the cream. Top the entire thing with the second cake, and sprinkle the top with sugar, if desired. Slice (not too generously!) and serve.



Thanks to Zorra for inviting us to celebrate Swiss National Day with her. You can find the roundup here.