When I make a sponge cake it always seems on the heavy side and never quite light enough. What should I do?

Charlie Bettany, Penrith

I do love a piece of cake but I'm not an amazing baker, so I've had to cast my eye towards the queen of the cake and take a bit of advice from Mary Berry. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and grease two, 20cm sandwich tins, line the tins with baking parchment. Crack 4 eggs into a bowl, then add 225g caster sugar, 225g self-raising flour, 225g diced, softened unsalted butter and 2 tsp baking powder. Using an electric hand mixer, mix all the ingredients together until blended. Be careful not to over mix. You can mix with a wooded spoon, but it will take longer. When mixed, it should fall off a spoon easily. Divide the mixture between the cake tins, then bake for about 25 minutes. They will be golden brown and feel springy when cooked. Remove from oven and allow to cool for several minutes. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely. When cooled, spread a decent layer of strawberry jam over one of the cakes. Feel free to add a layer of whipped cream if you like, then sandwich the two cakes together. Sprinkle the top with some icing sugar and serve with a lovely cup of tea.