Now you can have your cake and eat it!

I’m sorry I know it’s a cliche but I couldn't resist, after all this post is all about cake!! After the constant persistence of a certain individual, I’ve finally decided to put up my cake recipe for the cake which was mentioned briefly here and is pictured below. It doesn’t really have a name it’s kind of a variation on Victoria sponge, so I suppose it can be a Victoria sponge.

For the cake:
Ingredients:
8oz/220g of self raising flour
8oz/220g of margarine/butter
8oz/220g of sugar
4 large eggs/5 if they’re small or medium

• You need to preheat the oven, I’m not sure about the conversions and stuff because I’ve never used an actual recipe for the cake, my aunty told it me ages ago…but we always use the lowest heat setting so it takes it’s time cooking
• Mix the butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy and has gone a pale colour
• Add the eggs one by one and mix until they are combined into the mixture
• Add the flour bit by bit and mix until the mixture is smooth
• Grease the cake tin/s, I used two round ones to sandwich them together but you could use a square one or even use bun cases if you want
• Pour the mixture into the tin/s and place in the middle and lower sections of the oven, not at the top or it will burn
• Cook for about an hour or until the cake is golden brown from the top and cooked in the middle. You can check if it’s cooked by pushing a knife through the cake if it comes out clean then the cake’s cooked if it has batter on then it’s not cooked (common sense really)
  Most of the time we just have the cake as it is but if your feeling adventurous……

For the homemade jam:

I’m not going to do an ingredient list simply because I don’t know the measurements I always guess, or base it on taste. For the cake I made, I used strawberries and raspberries but you can use any fruit, I’ve made it with blueberries and black berries before and also I’ve tried it with apricots. This is a cheat’s jam, you’re supposed to add some pectin or summat to make the jam set but I don’t bother, but I prefer it not as hard as shop bought jams as it’s easier to spread and stuff. Basically you need to put your fruit in a small pan, it works best with berries and soft fruits, add a little water just a small amount about half a cup. The last ingredient is sugar, you need quite a bit of sugar but not too much, that’s why it works with berries so well cause you can get away with putting loads of sugar in cause berries are generally not as sweet. (HHmmm I’m having difficulty explaining this I just chuck the ingredients in the pan and let em cook and it usually works out fine!!!!). Well I suppose I used about one punnet of berries altogether, and I put in about half a cup of sugar first and let the fruit cook for about 10 mins. I then tasted the jam, as the taste wasn’t as sweet I added some more probably about quarter of a cup of sugar. Basically the more sugar you put in the more “harder” your jam will be, but you don’t want to put in too much which will cause the sweetness to over ride the taste of the fruit. So I suppose you need to put as much sugar as you can without making it to sweet, in order for it to set. Totally vague I know!!! But that’s the only way I can put it really. As for the cooking time the same goes really if you want you jam without any bits in you could cut the fruit in smaller pieces if it’s a large fruit or cook it for longer (obviously with berries you can’t really cut them but I did quarter the strawberries) or if you want bits of fruit pieces still in you could cut larger pieces or cook it for less time. Again basically you cook it until it’s the consistency you want it to be I think I cooked mine for about 15-20 mins on a fairly low heat, and I still had some strawberry bits in it. Again we don’t usually make this with cake, we have it with scones or pancakes or summat, but I spread it on one of the cakes this time and on the other cake……..

For the butter cream
6oz of margarine/butter
12oz of icing sugar
Some water

• This is much easier to explain than the jam, all you need to do is mix the sugar and butter until it’s pale in colour and creamy, it takes quite a while.
• Add a few tablespoons of water to get it to a fluffy consistency and the jobs a done’un!!
• To assemble it all let the cake and jam cool properly. Spread the jam on one cake and the butter cream on the other. Sandwich them together. With the rest of the butter cream you can cover the top and sides of the cake, and decorate it as you wish, be warned though if you’re a bit of a perfectionist then it’s going to take a while to cover the cake and it can get messy…very messy.

Picture 1: The finished product, before it had to endure a 20 min car ride in the sweltering heat , which meant that the butter cream had started to split and the juice from the fruit had started to run into the butter cream

Picture 2: The product when i got it home after having to endure a car ride through Manchester city centre and a sweltering hot train ride home

Ymiss: send me the pic of the cake at the park please so i can add it to the life story of my cake lol

And while we're on the subject of cake: