Having never made a Battenberg before, and feeling like treating myself to a sweet challenge, I did it. Here is the recipe, found on BBC good food and slightly altered for my preferred tastes.
This recipe makes two (with a little extra) Battenberg cakes, so half recipes, and bake in smaller tins for less time, or give one to a friend.
Two lots of the following sponge recipe (one for the pink sponge, one for the yellow):
- 165g very soft butter
- 160g caster sugar
- 140g self-raising flour
- 50g ground almonds
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 medium eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
Other ingredients:
- a few drops of red food colouring
- 200g jam – apricot, raspberry or strawberry
- 2 x 500g blocks of white marzipan with a small amount of icing sugar to dust
Heat the oven to 160degrees Celsius (fan oven), or 20degrees more for a non fan oven. Line two 20cm cake tins with grease proof paper, covering up the sides as well.
Start to make the yellow almond sponge first. You can do this with an all-in-one cake method, adding to an electric mixer and pouring into the tin. Or you can do it in a medium sized mixing bowl, creaming the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then adding the eggs, beating in one at a time, with a small addition of flour with each. Beat in the extracts. Fold in, with a wooden spoon the flour, baking powder and ground almonds. Pour into cake tins and bake for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown on top and the skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven, leaving to cool in the tin.
Make the pink sponge, using all of the same ingredients as well as the red colouring. It is up to you whether you want to flavour it with the almond extract though. Fold in the red colouring after the addition of the dry ingredients. Bake and cool in the same way as the yellow sponge.
Once both sponges are cool, cut the short edges off and one long edge. Slice both sponges into 4 pieces, that are as wide as the height of the sponge.
Roll out the marzipan on a dusted surface (of icing sugar) to 25cm long and as wide as the length of sponge slices. Melt the jam and brush over the marzipan. Place one yellow and one pink slice of sponge at the end of the marzipan and jam together. Spread jam over the top of the cakes and place alternate colours on top of the first. Cover with jam again and roll the marzipan over the top, pulling it tight. Once pulled tight, cut it to length and stick together. Smooth the cake over with your hands and bring any excess marzipan to the bottom of the cake. Press along the bottom marzipan to give some decoration, and add some marzipan decorations to the top of the cake.
Roll out the other lot of marzipan and assemble second cake.
Keep in an air tight box for up to 3 days for best tasting. It can also be frozen for up to a month.
Tip: for help making the marzipan roses, follow the pictures below.
Bon Appe 'Cready 