The cake that earns its place on the tea table

Few things say British home comfort quite like a Victoria sponge. It is the cake that turns up at village fetes, birthday teas and Sunday afternoons when someone has popped round unexpectedly. It doesn't need piping bags, ganache or a blowtorch. It needs four ingredients in equal measure, a gentle oven and a decent pot of tea to go with it.

The name comes from Queen Victoria's fondness for a slice with her afternoon tea, though the equal-weight method itself is older and thoroughly practical. Once you have weighed your eggs, you know exactly how much of everything else you need. No scales panic halfway through, no half-used bags of flour going stale at the back of the cupboard.

What follows is the version I make most weeks: reliable, quick to bring together, and forgiving of a slightly distracted baker.

Start with the eggs, not the flour

This is the single trick that makes the whole thing fuss free. Weigh your eggs in their shells first, then match that weight with caster sugar, softened butter and self-raising flour.

• Four medium eggs usually come to around 225g, which gives you a generous sponge in two 20cm tins.
• If your eggs weigh 240g, weigh out 240g each of the rest. Simple.
• Add one teaspoon of baking powder per 200g of flour to give the rise a bit of insurance.

Bring the butter out of the fridge an hour or so ahead if you can. Genuinely soft butter — the sort that yields to a fingertip but hasn't turned greasy — creams far more easily than cold, and it won't curdle when the eggs go in. If you've forgotten, cut it into cubes and leave it somewhere warm for ten minutes while you get the tins ready.

Bringing the batter together

Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture turns noticeably paler and fluffier. With a wooden spoon this takes a good few minutes of effort; with a hand mixer, three or four minutes on medium. Don't rush this stage — the air you beat in now is what lifts the cake later.

Beat the eggs lightly in a jug, then add them a little at a time, mixing well between each addition. If the mixture looks like it's splitting, add a tablespoon of your weighed flour to bring it back together. Once the eggs are in, fold in the flour and baking powder with a large metal spoon. Cut down through the middle, sweep round the bowl, turn it over — repeat, gently, until you can't see dry flour. Stop there. Overworking the batter develops the gluten and gives you a rubbery sponge.

Divide the mixture between two greased and base-lined 20cm sandwich tins. Weighing the tins against each other is worth the ten seconds; uneven layers are the most common reason a homemade sponge looks lopsided.

Baking gently, and knowing when it's done

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas 4) and put the tins on the middle shelf. Twenty to twenty-five minutes is the usual window, but your oven will have its own opinion, so start checking at eighteen.

The cake is ready when it has shrunk very slightly from the sides of the tin and springs back when you press the centre lightly with a fingertip. A skewer pushed into the middle should come out clean. If the top is browning faster than the middle is setting, lay a sheet of baking parchment loosely over the tins.

Leave the sponges in their tins for five minutes — they're fragile when hot — then turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and let them cool completely. Warm sponge plus cream is a recipe for a soggy, sliding cake, so patience here really does pay.

Jam, cream and the finishing touch

Choose one sponge as your base, flat side up. Spread it with a good layer of raspberry or strawberry jam — roughly four generous tablespoons — and take it right to the edges. Warming the jam slightly in a small pan or a few seconds in the microwave makes it easier to spread without dragging the crumb.

Whip 300ml of double cream with a teaspoon of icing sugar until it just holds its shape, then spoon it over the jam and spread it level. Don't overwhip; cream that has gone stiff and grainy is unpleasant on a delicate sponge. Sit the second layer on top, press down very lightly, and dust the whole thing with caster sugar or a little icing sugar sifted through a small sieve.

A few practical notes worth keeping in mind:

• Assemble the cake within an hour or two of serving. Once cream is in, it wants eating the same day.
• If you're travelling with it, fill with jam and buttercream instead, and it will hold happily for a day in a tin.
• For a slightly deeper flavour, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract with the eggs, or a little finely grated lemon zest with the sugar.
• Frozen berries warmed with a spoonful of sugar make a lovely substitute for shop jam in late summer.

Cut it in thick wedges, put the kettle on, and don't apologise for the slightly uneven layers. That's what a proper homemade sponge looks like.