Victoria Sponge Layer Cake with Swiss Meringue

 Baking is something that I love to do and when someones birthday is coming up I always get super excited about making them a birthday cake! I literally spend the week before planning what type of cake they would like, then the morning of their birthday I get baking. When I realised my mums birthday was coming up I started planning, I was going to make her a carrot cake however we had one recently so thought I would go for something I had never made before. Normally I make cakes with two layers but as I wanted to do something different I thought I would go all out with the four layers, strawberries, raspberries and swiss meringue. My mum isn’t the biggest fan of buttercream icing however she loves meringue, so thought why not take a risk and attempt swiss meringue.It actually turned out to be amazing, I was so impressed with how it looked! As for the taste it was demolished very quickly so I guess that’s a good sign that everyone loved it. If there is a special occasion coming up soon such as someones birthday then this victoria sponge layer cake with swiss meringue could be perfect and it’s actually quite easy!

For the cake:

• 280g sugar
• 400g butter
• 6 large eggs
• 400g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• strawberries and raspberries

For the icing:

• 3 egg whites (I used powdered egg whites as didn’t want to use raw eggs)
• 170g granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line four 20cm baking tins with butter and parchment paper, if you don’t have enough baking tins then use two and cook two cakes at a time.
2. Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (it should also be slightly pale).
3. Beat the eggs and add these gradually, if this starts to curdle then add a little bit of flour as you go along. Then sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold.
4. Divide the mixture and bake for 20 minutes, the cake should be golden brown. If you’re not sure stick a skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean then it’s done.
5. Leave these to cool completely on a wire rack.
6. Moving onto the icing and filling, place a large glass heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. If you’re using powered egg whites follow the instructions on the packet to make it into a paste then add to the bowl.
7. Add the sugar and whisk together using an electric hand mixer for 10 minutes or until the mixture expands and stiff peaks form. Allow to cool.
8. Once you’ve baked the cakes and made the icing you can now layer, take your time when you do this as you want it standing up straight.
9. When you have finished layering your cake top with strawberries and raspberries. You can also add a little icing sugar sieved over the top for decoration.

I’m so happy with how this cake turned out so couldn’t not share it, plus the meringue filling is a nice twist. I did record me baking this within a vlog over my my YouTube channel which you can watch here if you’re interested in watching that!

Rebecca x