# Victoria Sponge

By Garrett (Bear) · 2026-09-22 · https://ricottabear.com/victoria-sponge


The all-in-one sponge the tent opened with: two light layers, quick raspberry jam, and piped buttercream. Mary Berry’s recipe, in grams.

## The story

This is the cake the very first technical challenge was built on, and the one Jana is going to judge me on first. It is Mary Berry’s all-in-one method: everything into one bowl, mixed until it just comes together, and no more. The jam is made from scratch while the sponges bake, and the buttercream is piped rather than spread, which is the part that separates a neat cake from a homely one.

Based on Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge from The Great British Bake Off, written out in my own words with the weights I actually use.

## Recipe: Victoria Sponge

A light all-in-one Victoria sponge with quick raspberry jam and piped vanilla buttercream. The classic British bake, and the tent’s first technical.

> Status: UNTESTED. The author has not made this yet; quantities and timings may change.

- Makes: 10 slices
- Prep: 30 min
- Bake: 25 min
- Total: 1 hr 55 min

### Ingredients

**For the sponge**

- 4 large eggs
- 225 g (1⅛ cups) caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 225 g (1⅞ cups) self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder, level
- 225 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

**For the jam**

- 200 g (1⅝ cups) raspberries
- 250 g (1¼ cups) jam sugar, sugar with added pectin

**For the buttercream**

- 100 g (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 200 g (1⅔ cups) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp milk

### Method

1. **Heat the oven and line the tins.** Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Rub a little butter around the inside of two 20cm sandwich tins and drop a circle of baking paper into the base of each. Oven: 350°F / 180°C (160°C fan).
2. **Everything in one bowl.** Crack the eggs into a large bowl. Add the caster sugar, self-raising flour, baking powder and the soft butter.
3. **Mix, then stop.** Beat until it just comes together into a smooth batter, then stop. Overmixing knocks the air out. Lift the beater: the batter should fall off in a slow, soft blob, what the books call dropping consistency.
4. **Divide and level.** Split the batter evenly between the two tins. Weigh them if you want them identical. Scrape the bowl out with a spatula and gently level the tops.
5. **Bake.** Bake on the middle shelf for 25 minutes. Keep the door shut. Look through the glass at 20 minutes, but do not open it. Oven: 350°F / 180°C (160°C fan).
6. **Make the jam while they bake.** Tip the raspberries into a small, deep saucepan and crush them with a masher. Add the jam sugar and warm over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up and boil hard for 4 minutes. Pour into a shallow dish, leave to cool, then chill until set.
7. **Check and turn out.** The sponges are done when they are golden, pulling away from the sides of the tins, and spring back when pressed. Leave them in the tins for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and turn them out onto a cooling rack.
8. **The tea towel trick.** To turn a sponge out without rack marks on the top, lay a clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand on the towel, flip the tin so the cake lands on your hand, then turn it onto the rack top side up. Cool completely.
9. **Buttercream.** Beat the 100g of butter in a large bowl until soft and pale. Beat in half the icing sugar until smooth, then the rest with one tablespoon of the milk, until creamy. Add the second tablespoon only if it is too stiff to pipe. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
10. **Assemble.** Pick the sponge with the better top and set it aside. Put the other one top side down on a plate, spread the jam over it, then pipe the buttercream over the jam. Sit the second sponge on top, top side up, and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Notes: Butter has to be properly soft or the batter will not come together in one bowl. Take it out of the fridge an hour ahead, or cube it and give it ten minutes in a warm kitchen.