Gluten Free Victoria Sponge

1. Begin by making the vanilla cream. Place the cashew nuts, rice milk, agave syrup and vanilla extract into a high powered blender and blitz until completely smooth, thick and creamy. Scrape out the vanilla seeds from their pod and stir in to the cream. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave in the fridge for an hour before serving.


2. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas mark 5 and line and grease two 20cm springform cake tins. Cream the margarine, caster sugar and vanilla extract until pale, light and fluffy. Beat in the egg replacer, bit by bit, until fully combined (don’t worry if the mixture looks a little split at this point, the flour will pull it back together). Mix in the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and rice milk and mix until you have a smooth cake batter.


3. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and place in the hot oven, on the middle shelf and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cake is springy to a light touch. Remove from the oven and carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool.


4. Once the cakes have cooled, trim the strawberries and cut into quarters. Spread the strawberry jam over the top of one of the cakes then carefully spoon over the vanilla cream. Scatter over the strawberries and top with the remaining cake. Sieve over a little icing sugar and serve.

Recipe by Pippa Kendrick, The intolerant gourmet.

As Seen On The Channel 4 Website.