Margaret Heath writes:

One or two people have asked for my quick and easy Victoria sponge cake recipe, which is so unlike the NT’s work-making traditional method.

I use a light melamine salad bowl and a fork:

• 3-4 eggs
• and their weight in easy mix baking margarine
• unrefined light brown castor sugar
• plain flour
• plus generous couple of rounded teaspoons baking powder (obviously more for the large amount of flour)
• teaspoon vanilla extract (stronger than “essence”) unless you keep pods in your baking sugar.

Use butter for greasing the tins; two 8ins for 3 eggs, 9ins diameter for four eggs.

HAVE ALL INGREDIENTS AT ROOM TEMP i.e. leave them out in warm room for well over an hour, I suggest.

Heat oven; I find if you use too hot an oven the cakes can rise but then sink a little -better use around 140 on my fan oven I find. Bung everything in the lovely light melamine bowl and mix with fork until no odd patches of flour. Grease your tins with BUTTER, not marg, paying special attention to the edges. Then put in greased non-stick paper too, cut to size.

Spread your mix, slightly hollowed in centre, in tins and look at the cakes through glass door after about ten minutes to check progress; I don’t put a skewer in but see if the mix has shrunk away at the edges, indicating cooking is complete.

I leave a short time then invert cakes on to cooling rack and remove non-stick paper carefully. When cakes are cold be generous with your favoured spread; I prefer best raspberry jelly but you may like butter icing or lemon curd? You can sprinkle a little castor sugar on cakes before serving. Good luck!