Battenberg Cake

Name: Battenberg Cake
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 175g of butter, at room temperature; 175g of sugar; 150g of flour; 2 tsp of baking powder; 3 eggs; 1 tsp of vanilla extract; 1 tsp of almond extract; 50g of ground almonds; 2 tbsp of milk; pinch of salt; food coloring (red); 8 tbsp of apricot jam; 1 tbsp of water; 300g of marzipan (almond paste); some icing sugar for dusting

12 servings
1h 30
Difficult

Français

Published: 15 August 2020
Last modified: 8 January 2022

This sponge cake is a British almond flavored cake, covered with marzipan. When sliced, the cake shows a nice chequered pink and yellow squares. It was first baked in 1884 to celebrate the marriage of Prince Louis of Battenberg with Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria’s grand-daughter.
The recipe was inspired from BBC Good Food with some modifications.
In this recipe, I used commercial marzipan, but you can make it at home. I put its recipe at the end of the instructions section.
I also used a loaf tin to bake my cake (size 25cmx11cmx6cm). I bake each color of the cake separately.

RECIPE

Cream the butter then add sugar gradually, 2 tbsp at a time, and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with vanilla extract.
Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix until well combined.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt then add it to mixture.
Add almond flour and mix well.
Add milk and almond extract
Divide the mixture equally into two separate bowls.
Add the food coloring to one of the bowls. Try to have a nice pink color.
You can bake your cake in a loaf tin (like I did for this recipe) or 1 square tin that you should manage to divide into two equal parts using a thick layer of aluminum foil.
Line the base and sides of your tin with parchment paper and poor in the mixture.
Bake the first sponge in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes.
When the cake is ready, let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Bake the second sponge.
When the two sponges completely cool, trim the cakes into 4 equal slices, with the same length.
Roll out the marzipan on a clean surface, lightly dusted with icing sugar. It should be 0.5cm thick.
Try to cut the marzipan paste so that it covers perfectly the whole cake.
To assemble, heat the apricot jam with 1 tbsp of water in a small pan until runny.
Brush the marzipan with jam and place two slices of different colors in the middle. The sides of the slices should be brushed with apricot jam as well.
Place the two last slices, brushed with jam, on top of the first ones.
Carefully lift the marzipan and gently smooth it with your hands.
Trim the uncovered edges of the cake.
You can decorate the cake or leave it plain.
PS: In this recipe, I used commercial marzipan. But you can make your own at home by mixing 200g of ground almonds, 100g of sugar, 100g of icing sugar and 1 small egg yolk.

RECIPE

ENJOY YOUR HOMEMADE TREAT!