preheat your oven to 160°C fan/170°C

butter and flour two 20cm round baking tins

in a large bowl beat the castor sugar and the butter until light and fluffy

The longer you can beat these ingredients together the lighter your final cake will be

Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each one

Add the vanilla essence or vanilla bean paste

In another bowl sift the SR Flour, baking powder and pinch of salt

Gradually fold in the dry ingredients into there wet mixture, make sure you get all of the flour mixed in well.

If the mixture is a bit thick add approx 3 Tbs of milk and mix until you have a slightly looser consistency

Pour into the two prepared tins and bake in a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle does out clean

Remove the pans from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes

After 10 minutes remove the cakes from the baking tins and cool on the rack until completely cool

Meanwhile mix some sifted icing sugar with the homemade cream cheese or lane. You can of course use unsalted butter instead.

When the cakes have completely cooled spread a layer of the cream cheese then top with a layer of raspberry jam

Top with the remaining cake layer

Sift icing sugar over the top of the assembled cake

Serve a slice of cake with a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy!