Snowy Village Sponge Cake Recipe

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line two 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture well between each one and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent curdling.

Sift the flour and gently fold in, followed by the vanilla extract. Divide the mixture between the tins and smooth the top with a knife. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven and set aside to cool in the tins for five minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely.

For the meringue icing, combine granulated sugar and egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Heat mixture until sugar is fully dissolved, then remove from heat and whip on high speed until mixture cools and forms stiff, glossy peaks.

Add vanilla extract and continue mixing until incorporated.

Spread a layer of meringue icing on one cake layer. Place the other cake layer on top, and cover the top and sides with remaining icing.

To decorate, while the icing is still wet stick the gingerbread cookie houses around the edge of the cake and a few in the top so it looked like a village on a hill.

Dust with icing sugar, slice and enjoy!