Icing and cake flavour combinations

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

Last night I made a cake for a family celebration this weekend. Normally chocolate is my failsafe but for some reason I decided on a plain vanilla sponge sandwich. All good, until I remembered this morning that one of the people coming can't eat buttercream. I have home made raspberry jam to sandwich it, but plain glacé icing on top is a bit dull - any suggestions for a good flavour combo?

What about lemon curd for the middle as it's 'creamier' than jam and then some icing on top.

Having said that, if I'd made homemade raspberry jam for everyone I'd do that and buttercream and then knock up some cupcakes/fairy cakes for the other person ;)

Can you just sieve some icing sugar on the top, through a doyley if you have one? This would be particularly good if you sandwich the cake with whipped cream or mascarpone as well as jam.

I think Nigella does a version of a Victoria sponge with a caramel "sauce" over the top.

Is it the dairy that your family member can't have?

I've done birthday cakes (for myself ) which are home made jam and whipped cream on the middle and then sliced strawberries arranged on the top and they look pretty impressive. If you wanted to make it look even more special, you could drizzle melted white and/or dark chocolate artistically over it.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone - yes, it's a dairy issue so no cream or mascarpone either. I think the berries on the top would be great though, with dredged icing sugar over them. I was thinking of flavouring glacé icing with something but berries would taste better. Did you glaze with sugar syrup first to make them stay on the cake (or are your cakes much flatter than mine?)

I assume you can get non-dairy whipping creamy stuff - would that be any good? Presumably your sponge mix didn't have anything dairy in it either.

Is the sponge dairy free?
I'd be putting jam and fresh raspberries in the middle, and dust with icing sugar.

Yes, sponge is d/free - always use Pure as it is lighter (and easier to beat) than butter.

I've made buttercream with Pure, but I know this would get me strung up as a heretic in most baking circles. Tasted fine to me, but it was to ice fairy cakes rather than a whole sponge.

I'd bodge it into a lemon drizzle if you haven't already baked it. A nice crunchy drizzle kicks buttercream's arse.

Re-read, see that it's baked. Is it one whole or two sandwich tins? If whole, drizzle. Plain sponge with strong lemon drizzle will be very very nice.

I've got a clearer picture on my ipod but this picture is on my PC so is easier to upload and link to. The "cut" side of the strawberry was sticky enough to "hold" the strawberries. I then sprinkled caster sugar over the whole lot.