INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
8oz butter
8oz caster sugar
8oz self raising flour
Strawberry Jam (good quality eg: Bonne Maman or homemade)
Icing sugar
NB: I have stated 4 eggs and 8oz of each of the other ingredients. Weigh all your eggs together. If the combined weight is 7oz then only use 7oz of butter, sugar and flour.
IMO: Always use butter. Margarine is a processed food and really bad for you. Don't be tempted to use those low fat spreads either, they're processed too and your body doesn't know how to deal with them.
METHOD
Preheat the oven to about 180c.
Grease and line 2 x 7inch cake tins with greaseproof paper*
I use a Kenwood mixer to make cakes as it's so quick and easy but if you haven't got one you can still make it by hand...
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time. Fold in the flour until all combined. If you're using a mixer you can use the all-in-one method and just throw it all in together! The final mixture should be a dropping consistency; when you turn a spoonful upside down it should 'drop' off, not stick or run off. As you have weighed the eggs it should be fine but if not add a little milk until it is the right consistency.
Divide the mixture equally between 2 cake tins and put in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden and springy to the touch. If you're not sure if it's cooked properly insert a skewer in the middle and when you withdraw it, it should be clean with no mixture stuck to it.
Take out of the oven and when cool enough to handle turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool and peel off the paper.
When cool place one cake onto a plate, flat side up, and spread a good quality strawberry jam over, not quite to the edges or it will end up all down the sides. Then place the other cake on top, flat side down this time. Place some icing sugar in a sieve and shake gently to dust the top of the cake.
Variations: You can also sandwich the cakes with lemon curd, cream, cream and fresh fruit etc. For the top you could make a glace icing by mixing a very small amount of water with icing sugar.
Instead of making one cake you could also make fairy cakes (nowadays called cupcakes) and have lots of different toppings.
Another use for this mixture is to place cooked (or tinned) fruit in the base of a greased ovenproof dish and then top with the cake mixture for a light sponge pudding. Serve hot with cream or custard.
*How to line a cake tin: If you are using a non-stick cake tin you might not need to line it but I always line the bottom anyway, if not the sides, just to be sure the cake will come out!
Roll out a length of greaseproof paper and place your cake tin on top. Draw around it as near to one edge of the paper as possible. Place the cake tin above the circle you've just drawn and repeat, again drawing around it close to the edge of the paper. There should now be a strip of paper at the side of the 2 circles, cut the strip off, as close to the circles as possible. Cut out the circles.
Take the strip of paper and with a pair of scissors snip small vertical cuts into it all along one edge. Next grease the sides and bottom of the cake tin with a little butter (use the butter paper or use a piece of kitchen roll dipped in butter). Place the strip of greaseproof paper around the sides of the cake tin, snipped sides down so that they fan out onto the base of the tin, cut off the excess and save for the other tin. The paper should stick to the greased tin. Next lay one of the circles on the base of the tin and on top of the snipped edges of the side papers, again it will stick to the greased tin, grease the top of the circle too. Does that make sense?!
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