Victoria Sponge with homemade raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream brightens up this week. A top tip to make your baked treats last longer and enhance the flavour is to brush them with a vanilla syrup when they first come out of the oven.

Ingredients

110g Caster Sugar

100g Water

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

To make the syrup, dissolve 100g of caster sugar in 100g of water over a low heat. Increase the heat and simmer for 5 minutes to create a thin syrup, allow to cool slightly and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Extra syrup can be stored covered in the fridge for several weeks. Perfect on banana bread, brownies, and almost any sweet bake.