Introduction: The Ultimate Cake

About: One day I shall own a Delorean.

I'm told my cakes are legendary and I'm always asked to make them for peoples birthdays at work so I thought I would write an instructable for them.

This recipe can be used to make various cakes, this is a basic Victoria sponge, but could be adapted to make chocolate or Coffee cake if you add the right bits at the right time.

Step 1: What You Need

You will need

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Mixing Bowl

Scales

Electric Hand mixer

2 x 18 Inches non-stick cake tins (good tins are extremely important)

250 grams of Self Raising Flour

250 grams of margarine

250 grams of caster sugar

3 x large eggs

2 x tsp Vanilla Essence

icing sugar

Strawberry Jam

Lard

Step 2: Prep the Tins and Oven

First things first turn your oven on to 180 Degrees Celsius; make sure you don't have any baking sheets or other pots in there.

now you want to coat your Cake Tins in a thin layer of lard, I know they are non-stick but do it anyway, I prefer to use my fingers mostly because I can be sure I have coated the tins plus the heat from your fingers will melt the lard slightly giving the tins a nice light coating. Make sure you cover every part of it, including the sides.

Now you need to take about a Table Spoon of flour and put it in one of the tins and work it round by shaking and tapping the tin make sure its all coated the sides as well, with the left over flour do the same with the other tin and bin the last little bit of flour we don't need it.

Put your tins aside for later use.

Step 3: Cream the Margarine and Sugar

Take your 250g of margarine and 250g of caster sugar and pop it in your mixing bowl, its good if your margarine is almost room temp it makes it easier to mix.

Now using your mixer mix the Margarine and sugar together until its creamed.

Step 4: Eggs and Flour

Now crack your 3 eggs in to a cup and whisk up with a fork so they are all broken up, then pour them in to the mixing bowl with your creamed Margarine and Sugar. Sprinkle it with a table spoon of flour to stop the eggs curdling.

Now mix them together using the mixer, you may need to add some more flour if it's still curdling.

Now mix in the rest of the flour, if you find it a little dry to mix add a splash of milk.

Once that's done put 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence in and mix that in as well, this bit is optional bit it makes it really tasty.

ok now this is the critical point where you decide what cake your making, in this instance I'm just doing a Victoria sponge so I don't need to add anything, however if your doing a coffee cake you would need to put 1 and a half teaspoons of instant coffee in a cup and add just a splash of warm water not too much, then mix it all up in the up and pour in to the cake mix and mix that in. when your doing the filling later on do the same with 1 and a half teaspoons of coffee mixed with water to the butter cream, then put some on the top as well as the middle with a few walnuts.

If you want chocolate cake, take 100g of Cadburys hot chocolate powder and add that to the flour before you mix it in with the eggs. Make sure the flour and hot chocolate is well mixed together. If you find your mix becoming very dry add a spoon of margarine and a splash of milk, still try a little more milk. Then for filling add hot chocolate powder to the butter cream to taste. Lovely, stick some on to and grate a few squares of Galaxy over it and stick some buttons in there too.'

Step 5: Cooking Time

Ok so now you need to divide the mix roughly in half between the 2 tins.

Then spread it out roughly evenly.

Now pop them in the middle of the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes

the cooking time depends on the oven, so I would check them after about 15 minutes, if you can check through the glass and not opening the door otherwise they may drop. Then check every 5 minutes, they should be golden brown and spring back to the touch.

Step 6: Cooling the Cakes

when they are ready take the tins out of the oven, I think I may have taken mine out a little early they would have risen better if I left them longer but it will still taste amazing and will look good when its all together.

No DO NOT take them out of the tins yet, leave them for about 5-10 minutes

now DO NOT run a knife round the edge of the tin, this will ruin the tins for later use, in stead shake the tins and the cake will loosen it self up.

Pop the 2 halves of the cake on to a rack to cool put one side face down and one face up.

Step 7: The Filling and Finishing Touches

put 2 to 3 Table spoons full of Margarine in a bowl

then mix icing sugar in until it becomes creamy and almost white, give it a little taste make sure it doesn't taste of margarine.

Now add 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence and mix that in to it, make sure it's mixed really well, put that to one side you will need it in a minute.

Now take a plate, I'm using a cake board, and put a small bit of the butter cream in the middle, this is on there just to stop the cake sliding around.

Now take the half of cake you had face down and place it face down on the plate.

Coat that half with a generous helping of strawberry jam right to the edges

then coat the top of that with butter cream nice and thick but not quite to the edges as it will squeeze out when you put the top on.

Put the top on and gently pat it to stick it to the butter cream.

Then using a sieve put a small amount of icing sugar in it then over the cake tap the side of the sieve which should give your cake a nice dusting.

That's it your done! Pop it in the fridge to stiffen up the butter cream so it doesn't slip about too much.

I have included a picture of the alternative coffee cake, just add 1 and a half teaspoons of instant coffee in a cup with a little warm water, not a lot, and mix then mix that in with your butter cream and use that on your cake but don't put the jam in. then if you have some left put it on top with a few walnuts.