SEEING AS it’s June and the weather appears to be finally brightening up, I wanted to share with you a dessert-style cake that can be eaten al fresco.

At a barbecue the cake looks impressive and tastes great and fresh, but it is also quick and easy to make.

This cake is a real sweet summery treat that will leave you and your guests wanting more, so make plenty! Strawberries are sweet, succulent and plump and perfect with sponge cake and cream.

The cake is layered, allowing space for plenty of cream, and the delicious strawberry filling and topping adds just the right amount of sweetness to the cake to make it taste like a pudding without being too heavy.

However, because it’s a fresh and fruity take on a Victoria sponge, it’s also a good choice for a relaxed afternoon tea cake too!

I really love to eat strawberries, and at the moment due to them being in season in the UK they are really cheap. I feel they are a fruit most justifiable to eat in large amounts.

Strawberries are really good nutritionally and offer an excellent source of vitamins C and K, as well as providing a good dose of fibre, folic acid, manganese and potassium.

They also contain significant amounts of phytonutrients and flavanoids which make strawberries bright red and keep them looking tasty.

Strawberries have been used throughout history in a medicinal context to help with digestive ailments, teeth whitening and skin irritations.

Their fibre and fructose content may help regulate blood sugar levels, so there’s even more excuse to eat lots of tasty strawberries this summer.

Strawberries have a long history and have been enjoyed since the Roman times.

The fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use, then in the 1300s the French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest.

In 1714 a French engineer commissioned to work in Chile and Peru, observed that the strawberry native to those regions was much larger than those found in Europe.

He decided to bring back a sample of this strawberry to cultivate in France. The end result was a large, juicy, sweet hybrid (the modern garden strawberry) that became extremely popular in Europe.

The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany during the late 18th century, overtaking the previously most common source of the fruit, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species.

Native to many parts of the world, hundreds of varieties of strawberries now exist due to crossbreeding techniques.

I really like to use in-season fruits and vegetables in my baking. I always make this dessert in the summer, so why not give it a try too?

If you are short on time or like to prepare desserts in advance, you can make this wonderful cake before it’s needed. Just assemble and place in the fridge up to four hours in advance.

Hope you enjoy making and eating this cake as much as I do!