Strawberry Sponge

I was watching Economy Gastronomy on TV and they poached some strawberries with sugar and served it with shortbread. When I was in the supermarket I saw some strawberries that had been reduced in price and it reminded me of this recipe. However, I didn’t want to make shortbread, I thought it might be nicer with a sponge base to soak up the juices from the strawberries.

You could use any sponge recipe, you only want one sponge, so generally you would half the quantities for a sandwich sponge. Here is what I used:

60g butter
60g caster sugar
75g self-raising flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 egg

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the egg and beat it into the creamed mixture.

Have you heard of a Spon? It’s a two-sided wooden spoon, both sides are concave and the theory is that they are better for beating, it was invented by a guy in Auchtermuchty, which is where my mother lives and she gave me two of these at Christmas. It is very good for beating cake mixes.

Here is the finished sponge.

I put a whole punnet of strawberries in a pan with a tablespoon of caster sugar.

and simmered them gently until the juices started to run but the berries were not to soft.

Then I put the sponge into a dish (not on a plate as there is too much juice) and arranged the strawberries on top.
Serve with cream, greek yogurt, icecream or, like me you could use creme fraiche.