Dairy free victoria sponge

In this instance I mean dairy as all milk products, not eggs. Victoria sponge is a classic and one of Mark's favourites, though I must say I am partial to a slice or two myself.

Strawberry and champagne jam was on offer and so I snapped it up and set about making a cake. Mary Berry readily admits to using baking spread instead of butter in her cakes so I was less worried about spurning the butter! I used a 'Pure' soya spread with no nasty additions. Its not that I will not have butter, its that I cannot, I think natural butter is indeed a wonderful thing and I did not want to swap it for fake rubbish.

As well as jam in the middle I added whipped coconut cream spiked with plenty of vanilla. The coconut cream gave a creaminess and was an excellent substitute for double cream, an added bonus is that is is also better for you!

Dairy free victoria sponge

3 eggs, weighed with shells, room temperature
Same weight of butter
Same weight of sugar
Same weight of plain flour
Tsp baking powder
Tsp vanilla paste
Jam of your choice
Can of coconut cream, make sure it is cream not milk

Grease and line the base of three 20cm cake tins, if like me you do not have three make the cakes in batches. Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the vanilla and eggs for a further minute. Add the flour and baking powder and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat

Divide the mixture equally between the tins and bake for. 20-25 mutes until golden and springy.

Leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with plenty of strawberry jam and coconut cream.

This cake was just beautiful. Light without being dry, it had a substantial cake crumb, it was everything a sponge cake should be. The flavours of vanilla and strawberry are a classic and the champagne in the jam just lifted it to extra special.

Strawberry, poppyseed and orange cake

This is one of the more delicious cakes I have had recently. The cake itself has a lovely crumb and texture and the flavours are a little different but amazing.

The orange creme fraiche and Greek yoghurt filling is fresh, zingy and a nice summery alternative to cream. The poppy-seeds work really well too, adding a subtle flavour and nice texture contrast.

This is a good food magazine recipe, it can be found here.

I made a couple of tweaks. There are two of us, I sense it is not the best for our health to attempt to eat a four layer cake, so I halved the recipe to make a two layer cake. The recipe also called for full fat greek yoghurt and creme fraiche. I had 0% fat greek yoghurt and 1/2 fat creme fraiche in the fridge. Waste not want not,  I used these and the filling turned out luscious and fine.

If you are a cake fan I urge you to make this beauty while British strawberries are in season.

Strawberry shortcakes

Summer is here and I seem to have been panic eating strawberries before it goes away again! Its no hardship really as I love strawberries and the British ones are in in the shops with abundance just now.

If you pop over to Edd Kimber's blog you will find a recipe for strawberry shortcakes which is just divine.

A couple of notes. His recipe states that the given quantities make 6-8, I divided by four to make two and they were massive. I am very glad I did no divide by three to make two, they would have been the size of my head! Secondly he cuts them out, I just heaped two high round dollops on to a baking sheets.

I also had mine with creme friache as opposed to cream, not that I have anything against cream I just fancied something a little sharper on this occasion. I can confirm it is a delicious tweak.

All in all  lovely summer dessert..