Makes: 1 cake
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 Minutes
Hint: The cake should be kept in the fridge if not eaten on the day that it was baked.
Ingredients
Classic Sponge Cake
4 large eggs
300 ml (250 g) castor sugar
500 ml (2 cups) flour
15 ml (3 T) baking powder
250 ml (1 cup) full cream milk
100 g butter
5 ml (1 t) vanilla essence
Custard Filling
6 egg yolks
180 g (¾ cup) castor sugar
70 ml corn flour
500 ml (2 cups) milk
5 ml vanilla essence
Method
Preheat oven to 180º C.
Beat eggs and castor sugar together until thick and creamy. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into egg and sugar mixture.
Heat milk and butter, but do not boil. Add vanilla essence and stir into batter.
Spoon into 2 x 20 cm greased cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes and remove from oven.
Whilst the cake layers are still hot, use a cotton thread and “cut” horizontally in halve.
Place on a wire rack to cool.
In the meantime, make the custard filling: Beat the egg yolks and castor sugar together until light and foamy.
Sift the corn flour and fold into the egg mixture.
Heat the milk until just below boiling and add, in a thin stream, to the egg mixture whilst beating constantly.
Heat over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Stir constantly.
Remove from heat and beat in the vanilla essence. Leave to cool.
To assemble the cake: Divide custard into 4 portions and use as filling and topping for each cake layer.
Sprinkle with ground caramel, if desired.