I love a proper cake like a Victoria sponge or a Black Forest Gateau. They need a bit of care and attention in the making though. When I’m in a rush and have more than a handful of people coming round, a tray bake is my go-to cake.

This weekend I came up with a recipe which takes the flavour of a Victoria Sponge, the fruitiness and creaminess of a Black Forest Gateau and the handiness of a tray bake and gives you something you could happily eat three slices of .

OK, so ignore the could. You can. I did. My friend did. The children wanted to.

Here’s how it goes:

Ingredients

250g sugar

4 eggs

300g self-raising flour

Juice of 1 lime

200ml sunflower oil

190ml milk

200g fresh or frozen raspberries

Topping:

A jar of raspberry jam, preferably homemade

500ml cream

1 dsp icing sugar

1 dsp drinking chocolate (optional)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Beat the sugar and eggs in an electric mixer until thick, pale and creamy. While the mixer is still beating, slowly pour in the oil, the milk and the lime juice. Stop the mixer, add the flour and beat for a minute.

Pour the batter into a shallow baking tray.  Mine is about 30 x 40cm. Sprinkle the batter with the rapsberries. Place the baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. This can be done hours in advance of serving.

Once the cake is fully cooled, whip the cream, adding the icing sugar (sieved). Spread the top of the cake with the jar of jam. I used about 2/3 of the jar. Spread the cream on top of the jam in a thick layer. Sieve the drinking chocolate over the top, if using.

Cut into 20 squares for serving.

Note: Before spreading the jam onto the cake, I pricked one half of the tray bake with a fork and sprinkled  3 dsps cherry schnapps over that half of the cake. I served this half to the adults. I didn’t add drinking chocolate to this half so that I could tell which slices had alcohol in them and which didn’t.