What's the secret of a good Victoria Sandwich?

[saltyseadog]

I need to know :o!

Having failed miserably at a horticultural show this weekend, I'm going to have a second attempt at another show this weekend.

What are your tips please? I have to use a three egg, 6oz of everything else recipe.

Eggs should be weighed in their shells! I always do the egg weighing method as I buy eggs direct from the farm and they vary a lot in size. Weigh the eggs first, then weigh the same weights of sugar, fat and flour.

8oz self-raising flour.
tsp baking powder.
2 eggs(UNWEIGHED!!)
4oz sugar.
100mls oil (I prefer rapeseed)
150mls milk.
Separate into 2 tins and bake on 4 for 25-30 mins.
Very light and fluffy everytime.

SSD I failed horribly with Vic Sponge at our village show on Saturday, 'twas about an inch high altogether, Delia's recipe - in fact same result as last year .. all these hints make it sound so complicated think I will give this class a miss next year (however did get firsts for cheese scones and sausage rolls, blush, simper).

I am not confident about most of the things I do, but vs is my speciality. 8 oz of everything except four eggs, I use sunflower marg and value flour, all in one method. This for 20 cm tin, which I buy from whatever supermarket I can (usually end up buying new set on hols cos I forget mine!)Have gone through using butter, mixing by hand, being diligent about curdling etc and after twenty five years of making vs (my grandmother used to request them when I was in my teens) I conclude it doesn't matter. Just caster sugar on the top though and be careful not to over bake - a couple of minutes can make all the difference. Always best to eat it with friends I find! You're all very brave to enter a competition.

Definitely go for Delia's shove all the ingredients in at once and mix them together Victoria Sponge recipe (also very much easier than doing the creaming first). Plus my MIL pointed out that my cake mix was too heavy and advised adding a few spoonfuls of room temperature water so it was less claggy and more moussy.

DEEP cake tins mean nice high sponge.

I chuck everything in and use an electric mixer. Anything less than 4egg/8oz between two tins will be too small and give you two biscuits with jam in the middle.

This was going to be a shameless snag but thought I should mention that I bought McDougalls Sponge flour for £1 a bog in Asda last Thursday - I'm in South Wales.

And that of course should read bag...