BEAUTIFUL BATTENBERG
April 24, 2018
We're all about new and creative recipes and flavour combinations here at Sharkett Sisters, but sometimes you cannot be a classic; and battenberg is the pinnacle of classic cakes! If you didn't grow up eating mini Mr. Kipling battenbergs, or trying hard to eat just one slice of the full size without devouring the whole thing then sorry, but you were definitely missing out!
Keeping with the traditional colours, our little pink and yellow checked cake is covered in apricot jam and then wrapped in golden and delicious marzipan. Simple but truly delicious, we actually think the hardest part about making this cake is not eating it in all in one. So keep reading, and get the ingredients on your shopping list ready for a perfect weekend baking (and eating) session!
Ingredients:
6oz butter
6oz sugar
3 large eggs
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
6oz self raising flour
pink and yellow food colouring
apricot jam
1 pack of marzipan
Start by pre-heating the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas mark 6.
Start by pre-heating the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas mark 6.
We used a 9-inch square tin which we split in half using folded greaseproof paper. If you happen to have a tin with dividers or more rectangular shaped tins, that would be ideal for this bake, but if not a square tin works just fine! You just need to take a long sheet of greaseproof, the width of the tin and make a fold in the middle about half the height of the tin. Place this in the middle of the tin and smooth the rest of the paper on the bottom of tin and up the sides.
To make the sponge begin by beating together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add in the flour and baking powder, and mix until combined and smooth.
Divide the mixture equally between two bowls and use food colouring to make half of the mixture pink and half pale yellow. You could even go crazy at this point and make your own colour combination, but we love a classic Battenberg!
Pour the coloured mixture into each half of the tin making sure the paper divider is still standing straight in the middle. Place the cake into your pre-heated oven for around 25-30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave your cakes to cool on a wire rack fully before starting to cut off the excess. You want to get all the edges as straight as possible, so you will need to level off the top and trim a little off the edges to get past the golden brown baked edges to the vibrant colour inside! Make sure to compare each cake to make sure they are both the same size. When you are left with 2 almost identical cakes you need to cut each of them in half leaving you with four long oblong cakes.
Lightly dust your surface with icing sugar and roll out your marzipan, keeping it as rectangular as you can (it doesn't need to be as square as ours was - we got a bit carried away.) Place the cakes onto the marzipan to make sure it will be big enough to go around.
To make the marzipan stick to the cake, you will need some warm jam. We love to use apricot jam for this keeping with the classic, but if you prefer you can use a different flavour. Put a couple of large spoonfuls of jam into a small pan and heat on a low heat, just until the jam is melted a little to thin out and make it easier to spread.
Place two of the cakes onto the marzipan to measure the width of marzipan and then trim the excess marzipan off each side. Then, take the cakes off and brush (or spread) a thin layer of jam onto the middle of the marzipan. Stick the cakes down into the centre of the marzipan, with a layer of jam between the two cakes too.
Spread more jam on top of the two cakes and then place the last two on top of those, with a layer of jam between them.
Then spread the rest of your jam on the remaining marzipan and carefully bring the marzipan up the sides, going them at the top. Smooth the marzipan down on all sides to make sure it is fully stuck. Then you can flip the cake around, turning the marzipan join to the bottom.
You're delicious Battenberg is then ready to eat, unless you fancy adding a bit of decoration. We decorated our Battenberg with a line of pink sprinkles and dried raspberry, before tucking in to a few slices each with a cup of tea.
Thank you so much for reading this post!
Are you a Battenberg lover too?! Please let us know if you give these a go, by tagging us on any of our social media (all links are at the top of the page or in a box to the side!)
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Lots of love,
Antonia and Imogen x
