A beautiful, celebratory triple layer cake decorated with fresh fruits in a Union Jack.
This Jubilee cake is a basic sponge, like a Victoria sponge. It has equal weights of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, plus a little vanilla essence for extra cakey flavour. Because it's such a simple base it, it's really easy to bake - it's even suitable for beginner bakers. Decorating is simple too, all you need is a bit of patience to get the flag right on top. Don't be tempted to bake more than one layer in a single cake tin. You could do this and cut it in half to make two layers, but you'll get a better, more even rise from baking all three layers in different tins.
Ingredients
For the sponge:
220g unsalted butter softened
220g caster sugar
4 eggs beaten
220g self-raising flour sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk (optional)
For the filling:
400ml clotted cream
100ml double cream
Blueberry jam
Raspberry jam
200g raspberries
100g blueberries
Equipment:
3 x 20cm round cake tins
Greased and lined
WEIGHT CONVERTER
grams
to
cups
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and gradually beat in the eggs. Add the vanilla essence and lightly fold in the flour.
Loosen the mixture with the milk if needed - the mixture should drop easily from the spoon. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and level.
Bake for 25-30mins until risen and lightly browned. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Combine the clotted and double cream in a bowl. If the mixture is too running gently whisk by hand until it forms soft peaks.
Take one sponge and spread it generously with blueberry jam. Follow this with a thick layer of cream. Be careful not to spread to the very edge of the cake otherwise it will spill out when you add the next layer!
Place a second sponge layer on top of the first, gently pressing down until level.
Spread the second layer generously with raspberry jam followed by the cream and the final layer of sponge.
Spread the remainder of the cream on the top of the cake and decorate with the fresh berries in the shape of a Union Jack.
Top tip for making this Jubilee Cake
You can use strawberries or redcurrants instead of raspberries on top of the cake, and for the layer of red jam. Just pick a red jam that's a really vivid red so it contrasts with the other layers. If you can't find blueberry jam, blackcurrant would make a nice contrasting, almost blue-ish shade.
Octavia Lillywhite is an award-winning food and lifestyle journalist with over 15 years of experience. With a passion for creating beautiful, tasty family meals that don’t use hundreds of ingredients or anything you have to source from obscure websites, she’s a champion of local and seasonal foods, using up leftovers and composting, which, she maintains, is probably the most important thing we all can do to protect the environment.
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