Battenburg Cake

My all time favourite cake is battenburg. Sweetened with sugar & almonds, moist with jam & marzipan. I can eat a whole cake by myself.

Back in 2013 I had attempted to make battenburg myself, and wasn't too happy with the results. It was time to try again, including making marzipan for the first time.

The main part of the battenburg is the cake itself. Made much the same as a sponge cake. This recipe does not include additional almond in it, but I added a few drops of almond essence, in fact, if I were to make it again, I'd add at least 1/2 tsp as the cake, although nice, was not almond-y enough for me.

I have a special battenburg tin which splits the mixture into parts. I think I could have done with more batter, and I know I overcooked it a little too as the cake was drier than I'd like too. But a load of jam helped inject the moisture back in.

Whilst the cake cooled, I made the marzipan. The hardest part was sieving the ground almonds - mixing and kneading was so easy, I can't believe I'd never made marzipan before.

I didn't take any photos of rolling out the marzipan and fitting it around the cake. You can see it cracked a lot on the edges - I think this is partly the thinness of the marzipan, and the dry-ness of it. I also ran out of apricot jam so had to glue it to the sides with raspberry, but actually, I really enjoyed the injection of raspberry into the cake and would gladly use it again.

Pro-tip: you can't have too much jam holding this cake together.

The flavour of the marzipan was the same as shop bought. The cake, although a little dry, was good, but could use more almond flavour. Overall, I think my second attempt at battenburg was better than my first attempt - the colours are at least more on-brand (photo of my first attempt at the bottom of the post).

Battenburg Cake

100g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

100g butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

pink (or red) food colouring

Apricot glaze (apricot jam)

200g almond paste (recipe below)

Line & grease a 9in x 7in battenburg tin, which has a metal divider down the centre; or use a 9 x 7 in tin and cut double greaseproof paper to separate the mixture into two parts. Set the oven to 190C / gas 5. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar togeher until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, with a little flour. Stir in, then beat well. Stir in the remaining flour lightly but thoroughly.

Place half the mixture in one half of the tin. Tint the remaining mixture pink and place it in the other half of the tin. Smooth both mixtures away from the centre towards the edge of the tin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Leave the cakes in the tin for a few minutes to cool, then transfer them to a wire rack and peel off the paper (if used). Leave to cool completely.

To finish the battenburg, cut each slab of cake lengthways into 3 strips. Trim off any crisp edges and rounded surfaces so all 6 strips are neat and of the same size. Arrange 3 strips with 1 pink strip in the middle. Where the cakes touch, brush with glaze and press together. Make up the other layer in the same way, using 2 pink with one plain strip in the middle. Brush glaze over the top of the base layer and place the second layer on top.

Roll out the almond paste thinly into a rectangle the same length as the strips and wide enough to wrap around them. Brush it with glaze and place the cake in the centre. Wrap the paste around the cake and press the edges together lightly. Turn so that the join is underneath; trim the ends.

Almond Paste

225g ground almonds

100g Caster sugar

100g icing sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

few drops of almond essence

1 egg, beaten

Using a course sieve, sift the almonds, caster sugar and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, almond essence and sufficient egg to bind the ingredients together. Knead lightly with the fingertips until smooth.

Wrap in cling film and overwrap in foil or a plastic bag to prevent the paste drying out. Store in a cool place until required.

My 2013 attempt at Battenburg: