The Ultimate Jam and Cream

So simple, yet so good!

This has to be one of the best recipes I know! It is so quick and simple to make, and it's absolutely delicious every single time. There are so many different ways to serve it; With any type of jam and cream, with lemon curd, with chocolate icing, baked as cupcakes, with fresh fruit, the possibilities are endless. Decorating it is really fun because there are just so many things you can do with it.
The cake itself is incredibly moist and the smell when it comes out of the oven... it makes me drool every time.

The recipe comes from Delia Smith's 'Complete Illustrated Cooking Course'. I'm very fond of all her recipes, they tend to involve few ingredients and not too much time, but the result is always impressive. This recipe produces quite a small cake, which is fine if you're just making it for fun, but if it's expected to feed a group of people I'd double the recipe at least. It doesn't have to be baked in two separate tins, you can increase the cooking time and bake it in one tin either, just cover the top with tinfoil if it begins to brown too much.

There are so many ways of serving it......But I always end up filling it with jam and cream!

I returned to childhood decorations!

Recipe: All-In-One Jam and Cream Sponge

Ingredients:
110g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
110g soft butter or margarine at room temperature
110g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2-3 drops vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C/ 325 F
Grease and line two 7 inch sponge tins, no less than 4 cm deep.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
Add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk them with an electric whisk till thoroughly combined. If the mixture doesn't drop easily off a wooden spoon when tapped against the side of the bowl and 1 or 2 tablespoons of warm water and whisk again.
Divide the mixture between the two tins, level off, and bake on a centre shelf for about 30 minutes. Remove from tins and leave to cool.

To Assemble:
A great way to serve this is to spread both half's of the cake with raspberry jam, place whipped cream on top of one half, and then sandwich together. You also have the option of then covering the entire cake with whipped cream for a richer dessert, but I think it's fine with just the filling.
As I said before, it's a good cake to experiment with, so try lots of different fillings. Lemon curd is delicious, even nutella works!