Battenberg Cake
This is a very tasty moist cake - that can be a challenge to assemble, but is a real crowd pleaser - but you need lots of apricot jam!
Equipment
- battenberg cake tin with dividers
- electric whisk or similar
Ingredients
Main cake ingredients
- 140 g Self Raising white flour & 140g self-raising wholemeal – was 320 in original
- 70 g Ground Almonds 80 original
- 160 g Caster Sugar was 240g in original – could maybe reduce even more to 180g?
- 1 tsp Baking Powder was 2 in original – but was a bit over risen
- 350 ml Soya Milk or Nut based alternative – 400ml originally
- 140 ml Oil Rapeseed (was 160 in original)
- 2 Teasps Vanilla Paste
- 2 teasps Almond Extract
- Vegan food colouring paste
Cake assembly ingredients
- 450 g Marzipan pack – Sainsbury’s brand etc
- 150 g Fruit Jam Bonne Maman Apricot is best but could be another seedless jam
- Icing sugar to help roll out the marzipan
- Boiling water to help thin out the jam
Instructions
- Weigh out all the dry ingredients in a large sized bowl.
- Mix well – best with the electric whisk on slow.
- Set your oven to 180°C ordinary – best not to use the fan setting for cakes
- Weigh out all the wet ingredients into a jug – zeroing after each addition, and whisk.
- Grease and line your pan. Greased greaseproof paper on the bottom – you can cover the separators I guess to make it easier to get the cake oblongs out – I’m going to try that next time. Put just the middle separator in at first – not the other two.
- When the oven is up to temperature – tip all the wet ingredients into the dry ones and whisk – a bit slow at first, but as quickly as you can ramp up to full speed and give it a good whisking – incorporating as much air as quickly as possible – a couple of minutes max though.
- Divide the mixture in two. In one add enough food colouring (not cochineal/E120 as it's not vegan) to get a pink colour, and enough yellow in the other to get a nice yellow colour. Give each a quick mix starting with the yellow.
- Fill one side with the yellow cake mixture approximately 3/4 full = 460g
- Then pour the pink mixture in the other side the same - also 3/4 full = 460g. The tin with one separator and mixture in both sides should weigh 1134g
- Carefully insert the other 2 separators so you have four long troughs each 3/4 full of batter.
- Give it a little shake back and forth in the direction of the troughs – this is so there will be slightly less batter in the middle to give a more uniform and even rise.
- Bake for 40 minutes minimum and check after 40 minutes with a cake tester to see how it’s doing – probably needs 45-50 mins as it needs to be fully cooked.
- Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes – then cut the cake down to the top of the dividers so it’s completely flat. You can use this cake with some jam in between like a Victoria sponge. Then cut all the way round the outside edge to release the cake – use a plastic knife or spatula so as not to damage the cake tin.
- Carefully remove the 4 cakes together from the tray.
- Remove the greaseproof paper, and separate the 4 cake oblongs.
- Mix a little water with the jam, heat a little in the microwave, and blend into a smooth slightly runny liquid with stick blender.
- Lay the oblongs 2 pink & 2 yellow next to each other. Brush the top surface with the jam. Rotate 2 of the oblongs so they are on top – so 2 pinks on top and 2 yellows on bottom – split down the middle where they are cut, and lay them flat again, turning one pair round the other way – it should then be pink/yellow/pink/yellow. Paint with the jam again. Rotate one pair onto the other pair to create the traditional pattern of pink diagonally opposite pink and the same with the yellow. Pat/gently press the four oblongs together into a nice solid square shape.
- Roll out the marzipan on a cool surface dusted with icing sugar. Use the tin as a measure – marzipan the same length as the oblongs, but twice the width of the tin, plus almost the width of one of oblongs – to give a joining flap. Best to roll it out bigger than you need and then cut the shape you want – otherwise a 450-475g pack is too thick – needs to be quite thin.
- Paint the marzipan with the jam, but leave a strip 1/4 the width of a block at each short end.
- Place block on jam – just where the jam starts. Press down gently to get it to mate with the jam. And with a palette knife, make a very slight dent where the first fold will be on the other side of the block from the flap.
- Using the palette knife, lift the marzipan and cake and rotate through 90° being careful not to move it on the jam. Again press down gently and repeat the process.
- On the last one you will need to bend the marzipan lip out of the way, so do it near the edge of the surface you are working on.
- The best way I have found so far is to use a crimper, or a couple of straight edges to press the 2 flaps together so it sticks out at 45° to the 2 sides, and then either crimp by hand or with a couple of straight edges, and then trim quite close with a pair of scissors.
Notes
Final note – you can do it with a couple of loaf tins, but it involves a lot of fiddly difficult cutting – get the proper Battenberg cake tin with the dividers, and whilst it’s still a bit tricky – it’s a whole lot easier!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!