Plainer sandwich cake? Really?

Looking through the G.E.C. cookery book, there in among all the nice sounding cake recipes, chocolate and almond cup cakes, crystallised ginger cake, and Grosvenor fruit cake, there is a recipe for plainer sandwich cake… why would someone want a plainer cake… why not just have bread and jam? It seems curious to us, but the little sentence that goes with it to explain: ‘This cake is slightly less moist than the Victoria Sandwich recipe, but it a good base for a cake to which a butter icing is to be added’. Yes, actually, I can see the sense in that; if you have a rich yummy filly, you may not want a soft squidgy cake… on the other hand, you might! Here is the recipe:

• 5 oz butter or margarine
• 5 oz caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 6 oz self-raising flour
•  a few drops of vanilla essence

1. cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. gently add the slightly beaten eggs, vanilla and flour alternately, folding it lightly in but mixing well
3. turn into two 7½ inch tins, greased and dusted in flour (I usually put a grease-proof paper base in my tins)
4. cook at 375° F, 190° C, gas mark 5, for 25-30 mins
5. turn out and cool on a rack, then fill with as rich and gooey filling as you desire!
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