Fresh Fruit and Cream Sponge Cake

I initially made this cake for my brother's birthday. Trotting down to my local fruit market, I picked up a range of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in hope that I could try and make a birthday cake 'healthy'. It's made with a light sponge, allowing for a slightly heavier layer of whipped cream and heaps of fresh fruit, making it. Doubtless to say, as soon as the family came round it vanished- my brother (birthday boy) didn't even get to have any and I had to make yet another cake to make up for it. Tsshh.



Ingredients:

For the decoration:

• A punnet of strawberries
• A punnet of raspberries
• A punnet of blueberries 
• 250g pot of double cream
• A bit of icing sugar to dust

For the cake:

• 125g margarine 
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g self-raising flour
• 2 drops of vanilla extract

How To: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/ gas mark 4 and grease and line two sandwich tins with baking paper. Wash the fruit and prepare it in whatever form you want; I used strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

2. Cream the caster sugar and margarine, and when it has a light, fluffy texture, add the eggs and mix. 
 
3. Sift in the flour, beating it together again, and add the drops of vanilla last, giving it one final mix. 

4. Split the mixture into the two sandwich tins and bake for 25-30 minutes. If one seems to be cooking a bit faster than the other, after 15-20 minutes, swap them over in the oven or cover the top with a square of baking paper to stop it burning. 

5. After half an hour, take the cakes out and double check they are cooked. Flip them out of the tin and leave on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. 

6. While the sponges are cooling, pour the cream into a mixing bowl and whisk it until it turns really thick. Take the sponge which is going to be on the bottom and using a palette knife, spread the whipped cream onto the top of that cake, making sure it's fairly even. 

7. Take your fruit and place it on top of the cream layer in whatever pattern you want- I used alternating circles of strawberries and raspberries until the surface was covered, putting a few blueberries in the middle just to make it look a bit pretty. When you're happy with it, get the other sponge and place it on top of the fruit. Once it's securely placed, dust a good covering of icing sugar over the top. I then put the remaining fruit on top of this in a random order, before dusting a bit more icing sugar for a bit of decoration.