I’ll admit it, I’m no great cook. However, there are moments in life when you have to bite the bullet and enter the kitchen. Being a terrible cook, I’ve made it my mission to collect and save any recipe that makes it look like I actually can cook without having to risk learning anything too difficult.

So here we go with one of my all time favourite sponge cakes. I’ve cooked this loads, it only takes about 15 minutes to prepare, never goes wrong, and always looks like it should have been more difficult.

Ingredients

For the Cake:
3 oz of caster sugar
3 eggs
4 oz of plain flour

For the Filling:
Some Double Cream
Some Jam
Icing sugar

The other things you’ll need are a couple of round baking tins, about 7 inches across… and an oven of course.

Method

First turn on the oven at Gas mark 4 so it gets warm. Then put the eggs and sugar in a big mixing bowl and go at them with an electric whisk (did I mention you’d need an electric whisk too!) for about 5 minutes or so. What this is for is to put air into the mixture so that the cake rises well and is light and fluffy when it’s done. I don’t think you can overdo this stage so if you’re not sure if it’ll go any lighter, give it another minute.

Once that’s done you need to sift and fold in the flour. I sift the flour once before adding it, and then sift it into the mix in 2 portions, folding it in between each one. Try and keep air in it by sifting it high above the bowl and fold it as little as possible until it’s all mixed in. Folding the flour in takes air out of the mix so you really want to keep it to a minimum.

That’s your mix done (told you it was easy!). Share it out between the 2 baking tins (don’t forget to grease these first with a little butter or greaseproof paper otherwise you might struggle to get them out when they’re cooked) and put them in the oven for 20 minutes. When they’re cooked take them out and put them on a cooling tray straight away otherwise they go a bit soft.

Once they’re cooled down, you can make the sandwich. Warm the jam up in the microwave for a few seconds as it’ll be much easier to spread, then put a thin layer of jam on one half of the cake. Next, whip up the cream and put on a nice thick layer of cream on top of the jam (for a low calorie alternative, use less cream!). Add the top layer of cake and sift on some icing sugar.

If you’re feeling particularly creative you can sit a bit of fruit on the top to match the jam if you like. You should have a great looking thick sponge cake that you’ll be amazed you actually made. I am, every time!