Skip to main content

Battenburg Cake

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

Method:

Preheat your over to 190C/ 170C fan assisted. The first part of this recipe is the most complicated, and this is preparing your tin. Cut out a piece of baking paper and fold it in the middle to make a divide, which will keep your pink and yellow sponges separate. Put the baking paper into your cake tin.

Place the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla into a bowl and beat well. Split the batter into two bowls, and mix a couple of drops of food colouring into one of the halves to create the pink batter. Make sure this is quite pink as it may fade a bit in the oven. Pour the batter into your preprepared tin, yellow batter on one half of the divide, pink batter on the other then place in the oven for around 25 minutes.




When cooked, remove from the oven, turn out of the tin and allow to cool fully before assembling. 

To assemble, put the two sponges on top of each other and trim the edges so that they are the same size. Cut the sponges in two, so you have the four long rectangles.

Warm up the jam and using a pastry brush cover the long sides of the sponges then stack together to make the chequerboard pattern.

Roll out the marzipan on a lightly dusted work surface until it is large enough to wrap around the sponge (if you are good at wrapping presents this will be easy!). Brush the marzipan with more jam, and then place the assembled sponges on top and wrap the marzipan around. Squeeze the cake slightly so that the marzipan sticks to the sponge, then turn over to hide the seam.

Cut a thin slice from each end so that the chequerboard effect is seen properly.




Take a slice for yourself, sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BBC Good Food Caramel Brownies

Another get together with friends has prompted some more baking (whilst the baby is sleeping) and the salted caramel cover recipe from a BBC Good Food issue from a while back caught my eye. I have been storing this recipe waiting for a good excuse to bake it, and I can say (after scoffing a few), these brownies do not disappoint and will be made again. Brownies are very easy to make, the one stumbling point I often find is the temperature of the oven and the time they are baked for - as ovens vary vastly this is quite hard to write into a recipe, but I have a fan assisted fairly new over which bakes quite hot. They key for baking the brownies is checking after the stated time, and they should still be a little liquid in the middle if you want moist squishy squares. Leaving them to cool completely in the tin is also an essential, as if they are cut too early they may still be too liquid. Time to make batter - around 15 minutes Baking time - 35 minutes depending on your oven I...

Malteser Christmas Pudding Cake

Hello! Doing the rounds at this festive time is a Malteser Cake in the style of a Christmas pudding, and one of my friends has challenged me to make this, so being one to thrive at the thought of a challenge I gave it a go! I basically have made a chocolate cake in a Christmas pudding bowl, sliced and iced then covered in Maltesers. Pretty simple but looks fairly impressive.  This recipe will make you the Christmas pudding and some spare batter, so you can pop in 12 cupcakes as well! Ingredients: 350g plain flour 350g caster sugar 50g cocoa powder 1 tsp bicarb of soda 150g dark chocolate chips 435ml vegetable oil 1 cup of buttermilk (sour cream can be used as an alternative) 3 large eggs For the icing: 350g icing powder 250g softened butter Cocoa powder to flavour Two large share packs of Maltesers Melted white chocolate A couple of cherries Method: Preheat your oven to 170C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin and grease a Christmas Pudding shaped bowl. I ...

Classic Victoria Sponge

Hello friends, As we are in Wimbledon week, what better cake to celebrate with than the classic Victoria Sponge, with a cream and strawberries filling. This is a beautiful looking cake and an ideal desert to the countless BBQs and outdoor meals as we celebrate the coming of summer. Ingredients: 175g softened butter 175g caster sugar 175g self raising flour 3 duck eggs 250ml double cream 1 tbsp icing sugar 1 tub of strawberries, halved  Method: This makes an 18 inch sandwich cake. Preheat oven to 180C/ 170C fan assisted. In a bowl beat together the sugar and butter until it is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. The mixture may separate a little after the eggs are added, but this will come together as you beat it. Fold in the flour gently, and pour the batter into two greased sandwich tins, then put into the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven when golden and allow to cool fully. Whilst cooling, whip the double cream until it f...