A Victoria Sponge just in time for tea ...!

 Hey friends!  Happy Sunday!

College Boy announced that he is paying a visit this afternoon with his girlfriend, so I thought I would knock up a quick Victoria Sponge for tea.  You can’t go far wrong with a Victoria Sponge can you and it takes no time at all to cobble together using ingredients that are pretty much always to hand.

In case you’ve never made one before (and if not, where have you been?!), it couldn’t be simpler!  I tend to use the ‘all in one’ method (which basically means you just chuck everything in the bowl together and mix) as find that it gives a lighter texture which I prefer, but you can totally make the traditional way of creaming butter and sugar before adding eggs and flour if you prefer.  I would normally use a good quality strawberry jam (I like Bonne Maman) to sandwich the sponges together however as I had just made a batch of lemon curd a couple of days ago (in an effort to make a dent in the bumper crop of lemons we have on our tree at the moment!) I decided to use that today.  Anyway, below are the quantities  and method I used in case you want to have a go at making one yourself 😊

Ingredients:

8 oz butter, softened to room temperature

8 oz castor sugar

8 oz self raising flour

1 rounded teaspoon of baking powder

4 eggs

1 teaspoon good vanilla extract 

2 tablespoons of milk 

Method:  

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F/180 C.  Grease and line 2 x 8” sandwich tins (at least 2” deep)

2. Add all ingredients, except the milk, to the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use a large mixing bowl with electric hand beaters, or even a food processor but be careful not to over mix)

3. Beat everything together for 1-2 mins until well mixed and then add enough of the milk to give the batter a soft dropping consistency 

4. Spread evenly between the two prepared sandwich tins and bake in centre of oven for around 25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

5.  Remove from oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

6.  When completely cold, spread one half with the jam of your choice - strawberry/raspberry or lemon curd as I have used here - and sandwich the other half on top and sprinkle with a little caster sugar. You can switch up the fillings depending on what you fancy at the time.  Adding some freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top of your strawberry jam turns this teatime cake into an extra special dessert! (Just saying 😏)

Easy peasy!  

There’s still time to whip one up in time for tea if you get a move on ... give it a go and let me know what you put in yours!

Thanks for stopping by

TTFN

Bev x

What a Bobby Dazzler!

Morning!

How is your Saturday going?  I think Saturday mornings have to be my favorite time of the week.  An extra lie-in and indulgent time in bed with a coffee and my iPad catching up my everybody's news whilst The Teen is still dead to the world and Mr B is watching the footie in the other room.  Well, I say 'watching' ... a more accurate description would be pacing up and down the living room whilst periodically shouting "Nooooo!", "THAT WAS A PENALTY!" or screaming coaching advice at the players - does he know they can't hear him?  SEAGULLS!

Anyway, I digress ... whilst finishing up my second cup of coffee I just happened to flick to The Food Network channel (my other favorite Saturday morning activity) and caught Bobby Flay making some heavenly concoction with puff pastry, chocolate hazelnut spread (let's face it, it was Nutella) and chocolate chips.  Whaaaaa?!  Genius!

It just so happened that I had a pack of Puff Pastry in the fridge that needed using up and all the other ingredients in the pantry - love it when that happens! 🙌.  Anyway, it was soooo good guys and so easy to make, I just had to share (well, not the end result - I wasn't sharing that with anybody - just the recipe!)

All you need is the following:

1 x Pack of puff pastry (defrosted if frozen)
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread
1 cup of mini chocolate chips
1 egg + 1 tsp water, beaten

First heat oven to 375℉ (190℃).  Then mix half a cup of chocolate hazelnut spread with a cup of chocolate chips - Bobby recommends mini chocolate chips but I only had regular so I used what I had but I think the mini ones would be better.

Next roll out your pastry (I didn't even have to do this bit as mine was already rolled!) and then using either the tip of a knife or a pizza wheel, cut the pastry into squares.

Then simply dollop heaped spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture into the middle of each piece, brush the edges with the beaten egg, and fold over corner to corner into a triangle shape.

Next take a fork and gently press down on the two open sides of each triangle so that all that delicious chocolatey filling doesn't escape and carefully transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

Brush with more egg wash and bake in the oven for approx 15-20 minutes or when pastry is crisp and golden brown.  Transfer to a cooling rack and leave for 10 minutes (this was the hardest bit!  Trust me though, don't skip this bit unless you want to sear all the skin from the roof of your mouth!)

That's it!  How easy was that?!

Here's a short video of Bobby making these if you want to drool some more!  Click here

Give them a try this weekend - if you like chocolate I promise you won't be disappointed!

TTFN x