Gluten Free Victoria Sponge with Cherry & Buttercream Filling!

 This week has been manic, running back and forth and generally just being mad. On one of the few days we were able to stay at home, my mum was feeling a bit fed-up and I thought… how can I cheer her up?! I hate to admit it, but I am a feeder so thought hmmm, perhaps I could make her something. Since having to go gluten free, she has found it really difficult to find sweet things that actually taste good and she enjoys.  I opened up the cupboard, took a look at what was inside and thought bugger it! I’m going to give a GF sponge cake a go. What’s the worst that

could happen?! Let me tell you… the worst that could happen was that we ran out and I had to make another one. It tasted sooooo good and the rest of us enjoyed it too. I made an apricot flavoured one later in the week too. The sponge was light and moist and the filling was uber sweet!

My mum was really pleased – I had actually made something that tasted non-gluten free but was. Needless to say, I am getting several requests to keep a constant flow of these coming…. oh my poor waistline!! Here we go…

Ingredients (makes up to 12 servings)

250g Cooking Margerine

250g Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

250g GF Self-Raising Flour (I kid you not.. Tescos!)

1 tsp Margerine for greasing

Filling:

1/2 a Jar of your Choice of Jam

50g Margerine

200g Icing Sugar

Sprinkle of your choice!

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. In a mixing bowl (using a wooden spoon) blend together the 250g of margerine and sugar (this is called creaming!!) until it is completely mixed.

2. In a jug, crack open the eggs and whisk briefly. Then add this to the creamed butter and sugar and stir. DO NOT PANIC! It will currently look like crap and like it’s curdled… it hasn’t!!

3. Next, sieve in the flour and mix well. You will notice you now have a very thick batter that looks like cake mix and not curdled gunk!

4. Grease 2 cake tins of equal size (I use regular round 7″ sponge tins but whatever you like) and divide the mixture evenly and smooth the top.

5.Pop them into the oven for between 10-12 minutes until golden and when the sponge bounces back up when lightly pressed in the middle.

6. Take the from the oven and pop them both out of their tins and leave to cool completely on cooling racks!

7. In the meantime, put the other margerine in a bowl with all of the icing sugar and blend/cream together with a wooden spoon. This is how much I needed for the inside and outside of my cake. It’s a very individual taste so feel free to add more or less of either ingredient.

8. Now to assemble…  Place one of the sponge cakes on a plate. Now spread the jam over that sponge leaving about a 2cm gap round the edge.

9. On the other sponge, spread half the buttercream over it, again leaving a 2cm gap. Now place that sponge on top of the other.

10. Spread the remaining buttercream over the top of the cake and add your sprinkles of choice!

 There you have it folks… ignoring my pants decoration this cake is absolutely delish!!! I made a cherry one here and then tried an apricot. Don’t forget, you could also add food colouring to your sponge mix or your buttercream to create an even more colourful cake!