Victoria Sponge Flowers

This afternoon has been an exercise in simplicity.  I decided to make victoria sponge with jam and cream because it turns out that it's one of dad's favourites, and as he's feeling a little fragile this weekend I thought I'd treat him.

But can I really just make a sponge cake and fill it with jam and cream?  Um... it turns out I can't.

I used Mary Berry's basic recipe for butterfly cakes and added a touch of vanilla extract, as I usually do with a bog-standard sponge.  Instead of making one big cake or lots of little butterfly cakes, I wanted to try out some flower-shaped silicone moulds that I originally bought for making rather large chocolateycakeythings (which I'll still make, and I have lots of ideas!).

Victoria Sponge Flowers

The cakes with cherries on top are simply filled with raspberry jam and whipped cream.  The cakes without the cherries are filled with ginger and whipped cream.  To be more specific, I took a few pieces of stem ginger in syrup from the jar, and blended it until smooth with some of the syrup, essentially making a rather potent sweet ginger jam.  I definitely prefer the ginger ones to the raspberry!

Victoria Sponge Flowers
The close-up

I wanted these to look more pretty than they do, and I had planned to pipe the cream on instead of spreading it, but I ran out of piping bags and forgot to replenish my stock.  Oops.

So anyway, that's it.  Simple, quick and blinkin' moreish!  And you can't beat a cake with a nipply cherry on top!