January's bake of the month

I'm running a little late with what I had planned to blog about so here's the 'bake of the month' instead. 

A jam sandwich is a quintessential teatime cake that is simple to make yet so delicious. Normally when you make a jam sponge, or indeed any sponge cake, the recipe is two eggs and 4oz/100g of flour, butter/margarine and sugar.

The recipe I’m about to share with you has a twist, in that I can’t tell you how many oz’s or g’s to use. How will I know what to weigh out? The secret is in the eggs – literally !!!

The eggs, still in their shells, are weighed and whatever it says on the scales, you weigh out that amount of flour, butter/margarine and sugar.

Lets say the two eggs weigh 4 ¾ oz’s (I’m an old fashioned girl so always work in oz’s). Measure out 4 ¾ oz’s of self-raising flour, butter/margarine and caster sugar. No matter what the eggs weigh, always use the same weight for the flour, butter/margarine and sugar.

I was a bit sceptical when I first tried making a cake this way as I didn’t think it would make much difference. How wrong I was !!!! It was so light and the rise was double what I normally got. Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself....

Jam sponge sandwich cake – with a twist to it

Ingredients:

• Two eggs
• Self-raising flour, sifted
• Caster sugar
• Butter/margarine
• 1 level tea-spoon of baking powder
• Jam (strawberry, raspberry, any kind you like)
• Icing sugar

Method:

• Line two 7 inch/18cm round cake tin with baking parchment or non-stick liners (Lakeland sell them and they’re brilliant).
• Pre-heat oven to 180º c/Gas Mk 4. Fan oven 160ºc.
• Weigh the eggs, still in their shells. Whatever the eggs weigh, that’s the amount you’ll need for the flour, sugar and butter/margarine.
• Put the flour, baking powder, sugar and butter/margarine into a bowl or mixer then add the two eggs.
• Beat well until everything is combined and the mixture is smooth to the point that it will drop off a spoon.
• Pour the mixture into the cake tins, trying to get the same amount in each tin (I weigh them to make sure). Make a slight well in the centre of each cake - this will stop the centre from rising too much.
• Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Try not to open the oven door during the cooking as this can stop the cakes from rising. If, however, you think the cakes may be burning at one end (this sometimes happens if you're using a fan oven) you can safely open the door when you are past half way in the cooking time.
• To check to see if the cakes are cook gently press the surface of the cake with a finger. If it springs back it’s cooked. You can also test it by using a skewer (or knitting needle or a piece of spaghetti). Piece the centre of the cake and if it come out clean then it’s done.
• Once the cakes are cooled spread the jam over one of the cakes. You can use as much or as little as you like but try not to get it too close to the edge as it will spread naturally when the other one is put on top of it.
• Take the second cake and carefully put it on top of the jam layer. Finally sift the icing sugar over the top of the cake. 

 Have a great week.

Love,

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.