Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

So the special long weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is finally here. I hope everyone is looking forward to it. You don't have to be patriotic to enjoy a 4 day weekend but it is an excellent time to celebrate. I think it is important for nations to have a sense of pride and it is a good opportunity to be proud of being British, whatever that may mean to you.

Today I took my picnic blanket down to my daughters' school at lunchtime to join them for a Jubilee Picnic. It was a very simple idea but it worked very well and was well attended by parents. All the children were dressed up in red, white and blue and they had made bunting and paper crowns. Lovely.  Tomorrow I think we shall be having a barbecue, followed by the classic British dessert - a trifle.

After that I'm not sure what we will do so I've been reading the local paper to see what's on in Milton Keynes over the weekend. There are various events including Big Lunches, the Bletchley carnival, fun run in Stony Stratford and garden parties. No excuse for sitting around twiddling our thumbs!

The event that caught my eye was the Parks Trust Garden Party on Tuesday which amongst other things includes old fashioned competitions such as the biggest vegetable and flower arranging. But more up my street is the best batch of scones and best Victoria sandwich cake competition. Now there's a challenge. Of course, should you decide to enter these I would strongly advise a stop by my house first to pick up a jar of Jammy Cow Raspberry Jam. A seedless, fruity jam like that is bound to make your baked goods a winner! Good luck!


Victoria Sandwich Cake

225g (8oz) butter
225g (8oz) caster sugar
4 medium eggs
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
110g (4oz) butter
225g (8oz) icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
110g (4oz) raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 180°C, gas 4 and grease and line sandwich tins. Place the butter into a large bowl and if it is straight out of the fridge heat it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and cream together. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring in between additions. Sift in the flour and stir well to combine. Spoon equally into the two sandwich tins then bake for 25 minutes until springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack. In the meantime, mix together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla to make the butter icing. Once the cakes are cool, spread one half with the butter icing and one half with the jam then sandwich the two fillings together.