Hello everybody. I trust you’ve all had a lovely and enjoyable Christmas spent with all the people you love and some very delicious food.

Now that Christmas is over it’s time to start stressing about New Years. This time of year has the tendency of setting up unrealistically high expectations for the perfect New Years celebration worthy of a movie being made out of it starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. It sucks, because you put so much pressure on yourself to have the perfect night and for what? Nothing big actually happens at 00.00 on the 1st of January so no matter how much effort you put into  New Years Eve you can’t help but feel slightly unfulfilled because technically speaking, nothing actually changes when the clock strikes 12. But hey, maybe this isn’t a big problem for you because you’ve seen through the bullsh!t that is New Years and everything attached to it so much so that you could not give even a little bit of damn about any of this. And that’s cool too, everybody is welcome here. But no matter which way you choose to look at New Years Eve, you can never go wrong celebrating it with friends. New Years is something you should celebrate with friends. Is it just me or is Christmas the holiday you spend with your family and New Years is the holiday you celebrate with friends. Please tell me I’m not the only one who  thinks so.

So… what better way to celebrate the new year than with cake! Look out Ladies and Gentlemen, because the Victoria Sponge Just got a makeover and she’s beautifully delicious. Much like the Victoria Sponge this cake has a berry and cream filling but instead of plain old strawberry jam there’s raspberry coulis and fresh raspberrries and instead of plain old basic vanilla sponge (which I find can be a little dry after a while) there is the spongiest feathery light sponge that will stay moist for daysss. This sponge recipe is my go to vanilla sponge cake recipe. I can only describe it as a sweet spongy cloud. It’s so wonderfully simple and moist and light you won’t want to use any other recipe. This is the one.

I was actually not planning on posting the recipe for this cake and I just made it for a family Christmas party (which explains the Christmas decorations around the cake) but when I posted a picture of it on instagram a friend of mine asked for the recipe because she wants to make the cake for New Years lunch and I thought it was a pretty great idea so here it is. And now everyone can bake this cake to welcome the year of 2016 into our lives. Or if you don’t care about celebrating the arrival of the new year, bake this cake to celebrate the fresh berries that are in season.

Raspberry and Cream Cake

Ingredients

• 4 extra large eggs
• 1/2 cup neutral flavoured oil (sunflower/canola)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 150ml salt

• 350g fresh raspberries
• 2 tbsp raspberrry jam
• 1 cup cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 6)
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until light, pale in colour and almost doubled in size (about 5-10min) with an electric whisk or stand mixer. Add the vanilla and oil.
• In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
• Gently fold in half the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Then add in all the milk and mix well and then fold in the rest of the flour.
• Pour into two prepared 20cm cake tins and bake for about 20min.
• While the cake is baking prepare the filling. Place 150g of the raspberries in a small pot with the jam and cook over a medium to low heat stirring regularly until the raspberries have been squashed and a sauce has formed. Add a little water if it is too thick. Press the coulis through a sieve to get rid of the seeds and you will be left with a very smooth coulis thick enough to coat the back of a spoon with. Allow to cool.
• To make the cream whip the cream in a clean bowl with an electric whisk or by hand until soft peaks form. Then add the icing sugar and continue to whisk until medium peaks form. Be careful not to over mix otherwise the cream will split and you’ll end up making butter!
• Once the cakes are done allow them to cool completely before removing from the tin and decorating.
• To decorate the cakes, Take a sharp or serrated knife and carefully cut the top of each cake off so that the cakes are flat and level. Then take one cake and place it on your serving plate. Take the raspberry coulis which would have thickened a bit and carefully and evenly spread it on the cake. Then take the rest of the raspberries and cut them in half and arrange them on the cake on top of the coulis. Then gently spread the whipped cream on top and sandwich the other cake on top.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve.