Mini Victoria Sponge Cupcakes
These are going to be cupcakes that you will cut in half and decorate with some whipped cream and a strawberry jam in the middle like a big Victoria sponge cake but they are going to be little cute ones. The first thing you are going to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take your butter or margarine and put them in a bowl and then castor sugar and sift it into the butter. Sifting ensures that you do not get any huge lumps of sugar in your mixture because lumpy sugar will bake into the cake and then you will eat a solid lump of sugar which you do not want.
Beat the butter and sugar until it is just combined you do not want to overbeat it because then it will lose the sort of fluffiness but you just want it a little fluffy just until all the sugar is incorporated into the butter. Crack in the eggs one at a time mixing it in with the butter and sugar after each addition. It should not take very long at all to get all that mixed in.
Add in the sifted flour and baking powder, at this point take your spatula and fold your flour into the butter mixture by going around the edge picking up as much as you can folding it back in the middle and back to get all the flour incorporated nicely into the mixture. This is how you get the air into the cake you do not fold the flour and you will not get air into the cake and then it will not rise. It takes a few minutes but then it will start getting together.
Add vanilla extract for flavour and mix it in until it is fully incorporated and then your cake batter is ready. Get your cupcake casings and lay them into your cupcake tin Scoop out the mixture into a little ball and put it into each cupcake casing and make sure they are even. You can use a spoon or ice cream scoop to fill up the cupcake. Bake them in 350 degrees Fahrenheit preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Once baked, place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
Depending on the size of your cupcakes, if they are big, you will cut them in half then apply the buttercream and jam on one half then take the base of the cake and top of the cake and cover it up. If you made them small, you will pipe the buttercream and jam on top of the cupcake then place another cupcake on top so it layers the cupcake with buttercream. Dust the top with powdered sugar to give them that very victorious look. They can be baked for birthdays, afternoon tea just a little get-together.
Ingredients:
- 6oz/170g Butter or Margarine
- 6oz/170g Caster Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 6oz/170g Self-Raising Flour
- 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract