I love a bit of marzipan, when we were younger my sister and I used to trade icing for marzipan when eating our Christmas cake slices, the rich almond taste and texture gets a big yes from me. So no surprise that one of the cakes on my 'to do' list was battenburg - it is an absolute classic, and a staple of an afternoon tea I think. When speaking to my Spanish partner about baking this, he had never heard of it, but thought it sounded German - I did a little reading and turns out that the cake was invented in honour of the marriage in 1884 between Queen Victoria's granddaughter and Prince Louis of Battenburg. The 4 square represent the four Battenburg princes, although we don't know why they are pink and yellow, but this explains the German link, you learn something new everyday! Ingredients: 175g soft butter 175g caster sugar 175g self raising flour 3 eggs 1/2 tsp vanilla extract Red food colourant 2 tbsp apricot jam A pack of ready to roll marzipan ...
My personal blog of being a mama to my gorgeous little girl whilst trying to maintain some of the old me - a serious love of baking and a new respect for fitness and putting the right fuel into my body.