The most commonly told tale is said to have been created to celebrate the 1884 wedding of Prince Louis of Battenburg to Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria. The earlier version was made with nine panes (or even the 25 panes, ^^"). Anyway today I don't want to talk about the history (I'm not the food historian and not good at it). I just love the fact that this cake is very cute when you see it.
Battenberg cake is very simple cake, the recipe that I choose today is made from basic pound cake, that you tint it with pink food coloring. Stick 4 pieces of cake together with apricot jam and cover with the Marzipan and you get the Battenberg cake ^^.
Because I think it will be great to make your own Marzipan, so I give you the recipe too, this recipe is easier than the previous one and it's delicious, hehe. But if you don't want to make it, buy it from a store is a good choice too.
I love to serve this cake with black tea, the bitterness from tea goes well with the sweetness and richness of the cake.
Battenberg cake
Make 1 loaf
Homemade Marzipan
(makes 500g)
220g .............................. Almond powder
90g ................................ Superfine sugar
140g ............................... Icing sugar
1 ..................................... Egg
1/2tsp ............................ Orange extract (or zest for 1 orange)
Cake
175g ............................... Unsalted butter
175g ............................... Superfine sugar
....................................... Pinch of salt
1/2tsp ............................ Vanilla extract
3 .................................... Eggs
2tbsp ............................. Milk
175g ............................... Cake flour
....................................... Pink food coloring
For assembling
150g .............................. Apricot jam
First make the Marzipan
Put all the ingredients except orange extract and egg in a bowl, whisk to combine.
Put egg and orange extract in the bowl, mix until moisten.
Pour the mixture onto the work surface, knead until smooth (use icing sugar if the marzipan sticky.
Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate over night.
I use Battenberg cake pan ^^ the size is 20 x 4 x 15 cm, but you can use 2 loaf pans instead.
Line the pan with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 180C
Sift the flour and set aside.
Beat the sugar, salt and butter together until light in color, add the vanilla and beat to combine.
Lightly beaten the eggs together then pour the egg into the bowl, beat to combine.
Pour half of the flour into the bowl, fold to combine.
Pour the milk into the bowl, fold to combine.
Pour the rest of the flour into the bowl, fold to combine.
Divide the batter in 2, mix one part of the batter with pink food coloring.
Put the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then, loosening around the edges using a small, sharp knife, carefully remove the cake from the pan and place on the wire rack to cool down completely.
If using 2 loaf pans:
When the cake is cool, cut each cake in half lengthways so you have two rectangles in each colour. Trim all the edges so each rectangle has the same dimensions. The cross section should be a square, with the width the same as the depth.
Assemble:
Push the jam through a sieve and using a palette knife, spread the jam over two adjoining sides of each rectangle of cake, then stick them together along the jammed sides to form a chequerboard pattern when viewed from the end of the cake.
Roll out the marzipan on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. It should be rolled out into a rectangle the same length as the cake and four times the width, with any excess trimmed away.
Spread the remaining jam over the marzipan, then place the cake along one edge so that cake and marzipan align lengthways, and roll up the cake in the marzipan. Cut off each end of the cake to neaten, then cut into slices to serve.
Battenberg cake: Cute little cake
Looks so pretty, thanks for sharing. By the way, I think you've left out the eggs in your cake ingredients.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much ^^"
ReplyDeleteAlready edited it.
Thanks for sharing ... This cake look very nice! : )
ReplyDeleteGood day!
You are so right, it's sure look like a cute little cake.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Eleonora, an Italian girl.
ReplyDeleteI've just discovered your beautiful blog and I join your followers.
I like this nice cake, thank you for sharing it!
and...what's your name? I can't find this information in the blog! I'd like to write "Hi (your name),..." next time I'll write you!!!
:-)
(sorry for my English...)