I’ve been a big fan of The Great British Bake Off since its inception, and it’s been a show that has driven me to push myself and my baking skills ever since I saw all the amazing bakers creating beautiful bakes under intense pressure. The chances are slim that I’ll ever get on Bake Off, so I’m challenging myself by starting a new series of videos focusing on attempting Techncial Challenges!
My first challenge was starting off relatively simple – making the classic Battenberg Cake! A Battenberg Cake is a sponge cake made of two different colours (but not always two different flavours) and held together with jam and covered with marzipan. It can be quite divisive due to the intensity of the marzipan, but it’s a personal favourite of mine! I even went to the lengths of making my own marzipan, which I’d never done before. So if you love Battenberg, but have never made it before then give it a try!
Battenberg Cake
Print RecipeIngredients
- For the marzipan:
- 480g Ground Almonds
- 280g Icing Sugar
- 175g Golden Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- For the cake:
- 175g Soft Unsalted Butter
- 175g Golden Caster Sugar
- 140g Self-Raising Flour
- 50g Ground Almonds
- 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Tsp Almond Extract
- 1 Tsp Raspberry Flavour
- Pink Gel Food Colouring
- 2 - 3 Tbsps Apricot Jam
Instructions
To make the marzipan, add the ground almonds, icing sugar and golden caster sugar into a bowl.
Make a well in the middle and crack in the eggs and combine together until a dough-like consistency forms.
Turn out onto a clean surface and work until it comes together and becomes smooth. Wrap in cling film or baking paper and leave in a cool place till later.
Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
Next, for the pink cake, add the butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk together until light and fluffy.
Beat in each egg one at a time until smooth and creamy.
Add in the flour, ground almonds, and baking powder and mix in until thoroughly combined with the butter mixture.
Add half a dozen drops of pink food colouring, and the raspberry flavouring and combine into the cake batter until the batter is completely pink.
Line a square 8-inch cake tin and add the cake batter into it. Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out of the middle clean. Remove from the tin and leave to cool completely.
Repeat the above processes for the plain almond sponge, except add in some almond extract instead of the raspberry flavouring and leave out the food colouring.
When both cakes are cool, trim off the edges (about 1cm off each edge should do) and then divide both cakes into four equal pieces.
Alternate the cakes into a checkerboard pattern, then melt the apricot jam and stick all four pieces together using the jam.
Roll out the marzipan so it's around 3 - 4 times the width of the cake, and gently wrap the cake in the marzipan. Trim off any excess.
Cut the ends off the cake - again about 1cm will do - to level them out.
Serve up and enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee!
