Strawberry Sponge Cake

Directions

1. 1
   First you need to bake a sponge cake.
2. 2
   Preheat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas mark 6/392F/moderate. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
3. 3
   In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Slowly add the eggs to the butter-sugar mixture, mixing at low speed. Add vanilla.
4. 4
   Once the eggs and butter-sugar mixture are combined, slowly mix in self-raising flour.
5. 5
   Grease a baking tin with butter, cut a piece of greaseproof paper to fit inside. Optional: if you run out of greaseproof paper, grease the tin with butter and cover it with breadcrumbs.
6. 6
   Using a small palette knife, fill the baking tin evenly with the mixture.
7. 7
   Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Test the sponge cake with a thin knife. It should come out clean when the cake is baked.
8. 8
   Allow the sponge cake to cool on a wire rack. Take a knife and cut off the top of the cake to get a flat surface.
9. 9
   Mix the cream (in this case, I prefer double cream because it gets much stiffer than whipping cream). Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream on the cake and use a small palette knife to level and smooth the surface.
10. 10
    Wash the strawberries in cold water and cut every strawberry into quarters. Cover the whole surface with strawberries and sprinkle with icing sugar.
11. 11
    Use as many strawberries as you can to cover all the cake's surface.
12. 12
    Before serving this yummy strawberry cake, chill it in a refrigerator for 15 minutes to allow the cream to become firmer.