When I looked over the recipe for this cake, my first thought was “wow, this looks easy”. It basically said, throw everything in a bowl, mix and bake. I may have gotten a little cocky, that was my first mistake. Seems like whenever I get a little cocky, the simplest things go awry.
Really, it should have been that uncomplicated, check out the recipe for Mary Berry’s easy Victoria Sandwich at https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mary_berrys_perfect_34317 and tell me if I’m wrong. Easy is even in the title of the recipe!
So what went wrong? I have some ideas:
- I used regular sugar instead of superfine. I’ve done this before, but in the past I pulsed the sugar in a food processor first to make it superfine.
- I used regular flour and added baking powder instead of using self-rising flour. This actually should have worked according to several articles…but maybe my baking powder was bad? I have had it for quite a while.
- Maybe I even over mixed? But I don’t think so.
My cakes came out looking like moon craters: so very sunken in the middle. I’m probably being generous when I tell you the middle of the cake was 1/4 inch thick, it may have even been less. The outer edge was close to an inch. Can you picture it? Not a pretty sight right?
I wish I could say it looked atrocious and tasted like heaven, but I’d be lying, and you deserve the truth. In an effort to make the middle of the cake plump up and resemble more of a divot instead of crater, I slathered a whole jar of raspberry jam between the layers (most a huge mass in the middle). How much was I supposed to use? I don’t know, it just says jam in the recipe. What I do know is that a whole jar was waaaaay to much, because that’s all I could taste. Scrape it off you say? Too late, a lot of it was absorbed into the cake. My husband wouldn’t even eat it, and he pretty much eats all baked goods. Epic failure. After I lick my wounds, I may try it again with the listed ingredients and fresh baking powder, we’ll see.
My teeth hurt just looking at all that jam. 
Looks like the mouth of a Muppet to me.
Erics look much tastier… 
…and even on top.
How did Eric do? His sunk just a little bit, and he added whipped cream to it, which I’m sure cut the raspberry. His definitely looks better and they ate it, so I know it tasted better. Mine ended up doing a nosedive into the trash can. Fingers crossed that March turns out better!