Throwback: Wimbledon Fever

Everyone knows that (apart from tennis) the things most closely associated with Wimbledon are strawberries and cream. Throughout the weeks that the tournament takes place, there are always promotions in supermarkets and on the television, encouraging people to buy what's on offer. 

One day while the tournament was taking place, I had a sudden urge to bake, so decided to take inspiration from 'strawberries and cream' by making some mini victoria sponges. I popped up the road to Waitrose to buy all the essentials for my cakes. I don't normally shop there, but out of the three supermarkets on my local high street, it's the one that has everything you'd need to bake a good cake! While I was there, I found some heart shaped cutters which were reduced and thought that instead of making actual mini sponges, I'd make 2 bigger ones and cut them out. 

Here is the recipe (Paul Hollywood) and method I used, along with some pictures to help! I decided to make butter icing instead of use fresh cream so they would last longer. 

INGREDIENTS
(makes 8)

Sponge
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self raising flour

Filling
3 tbsp raspberry jam
150g unsalted butter, softened
325g icing sugar (25g to dust)
1-2 tbsp vanilla essence
8 strawberries or raspberries

METHOD

1. Set the oven to 180C/gas 4. Lightly butter two sandwich tins, each with a diameter of 20cm. 

2. Cream together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, and then slowly add the beaten egg. 

3. Fold in the sifted flour and spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins. 

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool and then remove from the tins. 

5. While the cake is cooling, make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter until soft. Then add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth. 

6. Add the remaining icing sugar and vanilla essence until the mixture is smooth. 

7. By now, the cakes should be cool. You can now cut each cake into 4 hearts. With the left overs you can make a trifle or mini sponge, jam and butter icing bites (my brother loved these). 

8. In turn, cut each of the hearts in half until you have 16 thinner hearts. Cover 8 with jam and 8 with buttercream icing.

9. Sandwich them together and dust with icing sugar. Cut the strawberries in half and place on top of the cakes for a beautiful looking wimbledon treat!