Now that The Great British Bake Off has finished we need to start looking elsewhere for our baking inspiration. Duerr’s is a family owned Jam making company that has been around since 1881 and they are keen to encourage us to keep baking even though Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry have left our screens for another year. They’ve made a short series of videos called Baking for boys, showing how easy it is to make some classic British cakes and puddings. The first episode in the series is Victoria Sponge and to try and get more people baking Duerr’s sent me the jams used in the series so I could reproduce their recipes.

My tips for making a perfect Victoria sponge are:

Make sure the butter and sugar are fully combined before adding the egg.

Add the egg a little at a time and mix in to prevent curdling. If it does curdle add a spoonful of the flour which should bring the mixture back together.

Make sure your tins are well greased and lined. Personally it’s my least favourite part of baking but it is worth it.

Be careful not to over-whip the double cream. It should be a smooth consistency and stand up in soft peaks.

There is a 5 egg recipe at the end of the video. I only had 4 eggs when I made my sponge so I reduced the mix to 225g of butter, caster sugar and self raising flour with a little whole milk to compensate.

I hope you enjoy the video, come back next week to see my version of the next recipe for marmalade bread and butter pudding.