A Victoria sponge cake is a great British classic and the ideal cake to make if you’re just getting to grips with baking, or you want something that’s quick and easy.

If you can whip up this recipe then any other bakes that follow should be a piece of cake, so it’s an ideal place to begin a foray into baking.

Celebrity chef, baker and Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood says you can bake a “perfect” Victoria sponge if you measure out one ingredient at the very beginning.

According to Hollywood, weighing the eggs first – in their shells – is the trick to getting a perfectly balanced Victoria sponge cake.

The 58-year-old says once you have the weight of the eggs, you can then measure out your caster sugar and flour to match this exactly, giving you the same quantity of each ingredient. As for the margarine, this should be exactly half the weight of your eggs.

Centering your recipe around the eggs will then ensure you have the correct quantities of sugar, flour and margarine to create a perfect sponge.

The baking expert also uses a combination of unsalted butter and margarine in his recipe, as he says the combination of both will result in a lighter cake with a rich flavour.

Hollywood explains: “Baking is a science. That’s why, in this recipe, we weigh the eggs first and then adjust the quantities of the other ingredients to get the perfect balance. I like to use half margarine for a lighter texture and half butter for a rich flavour.”

A Victoria sponge only requires a few ingredients and can be made using the “all-in-one” method, which essentially involves putting all of the ingredients in a bowl at once and mixing them together.

But Hollywood recommends taking a different approach and adding the ingredients in stages, as this will help bakers to learn about process.

He adds: “If you’re new to baking, this should be your very first cake. If you get it right, everything else will be easy.

“You can make a Victoria sandwich using the all-in-one method, where you mix everything together in a bowl at the same time, but I encourage you to cream the fats and sugar together before adding the eggs, flour and raising agent, as you’ll learn a lot about baking this way.”

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs (in their shells)

• About 270g caster sugar

• About 270g self-raising flour

• 135g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease the tins

• About 135g soft margarine

• 125g raspberry jam (good-quality)

• A little caster sugar to sprinkle

Method

1. Heat your oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with baking paper. Weigh the eggs first (in their shells), then weigh the same quantity of sugar and flour. For the butter and the margarine, you need half the weight of the eggs.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, margarine and sugar together using an electric whisk until pale in colour and light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again.

3. Beat the eggs together in a jug, then gradually add to the mixture, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again. Sift the flour over the surface of the mixture and gently fold in, using a large metal spoon.

4. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins. To ensure the cakes are exactly the same size you can weigh the cake mixture into each tin. Gently smooth the surface with the back of the spoon to level it.

5. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes until risen, golden brown and the cakes spring back in the centre when lightly touched with a fingertip. They should be slightly shrunken away from the edges of the tin. Leave the cakes in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

6. When cold, sandwich the cakes together with the raspberry jam and sprinkle the top with a little caster sugar.