Traditional Battenberg Cake

The traditional Battenberg cake is a light sponge cake held together with apricot jam and covered with marzipan. Battenberg Cake is a very classic British cake. One can find them always adorning the British afternoon tea spreads. The cake was named in honour of the marriage of Princess Victoria, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. But this four panelled cake wasn’t the wedding cake. The historians believe that commercial bakers like Lyons simplified the cake to suit their production line.

I made this cake for the first time in 2013 for Valentines Day. I made the marzipan from scratch and was really happy about the cake as it tasted delicious. This time I used store bought marzipan. Do not let the chequered looks intimidate you! It’s one of the easiest cakes to bake and to assemble too. And trust me when I say the cake always makes people go, “Oooooo!” I have detailed the recipe alongwith how to assemble the cake.

Traditional Battenberg Cake

Lejna

Though it may look difficult, Battenberg Cake is one of the most easiest cakes to make. Follow this recipe and make the fancy looking cake in no time!

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Assembling 20 mins

Total Time 1 hr 30 mins

Course Afternoon Tea, Cakes, Dessert, High Tea, Tea Cake

Cuisine British

Servings 1 cake

Equipment

• Battenberg cake tin or Bread tin

Ingredients

  

• ¾ cup Caster sugar
• 1¼ cup All-purpose flour
• ½ cup Almond flour
• 2¼ tsp Baking powder
• 3 nos Eggs room temperature
• ¾ cup Butter room temperature
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• 3 drops Pink food colour gel
• ⅓ cup Apricot jam
• 250 gms Marzipan

Instructions

 

• To make Battenberg cake you can use a Battenberg cake tin. In it you can get equal sized cake strips. Since I didn't have the cake tin I used a bread tin. I baked the cakes and then trimmed them into 4 equal slices.
• To make the cake batter, sieve the dry ingredients together. In a mixing bowl mix egg, butter and vanilla extract together. Add the dry ingredients into it. With a beater mix the batter till its well combined and smooth. The batter will be a thick one.
• Divide the batter equally. I used a weighing scale for this. My total batter weighed 700 grams, hence I divided them into two 350 grams batter. To one half of the batter add the pink food colouring and mix well. So you now have one plain batter and one pink batter.
• I'm detailing how to bake the Battenberg cake in a bread tin here. If you have a Battenberg cake tin, then all you need to do is to spread the batter into each compartments and bake.
• Grease a bread tin well with butter. Now spoon in the batter into the bread tin. Gently push the batter into the corners of the bread tin. We have to do this as the batter is a thick one. Smooth the top of the batter.
• Place the tin in the centre rack of an oven preheated to 180°C. Bake for 25-30 minutes till the cake is well baked.
• Repeat this process for the other batter too. You will have two cakes. One plain and one pink.
• Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, wrap it and refrigerate it at-least for 2 hours. We do this as a warm cake is difficult to cut, it would crumble.
• Once the cake is chilled take one of the cake out and cut it into two equal parts vertically. Take a scale of 2.5 cm width. Keep it on the cake and start trimming the cake. This will help you to get an even sided cake. Repeat the process for the rest of the cakes. You will have 4 long cakes. Two plain and two pink.
• Heat the apricot jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve and set it aside. 
• Take your marzipan and knead it till it becomes smooth and soft.
• The cakes are 2.5 cm in width, so together they will be 5 cms,plus a little extra once you brush the jam. Hence with all four sides together your marzipan should be rolled into more than 22 cms in width. Measure the length of your cake and that will be the height your marzipan needs to be rolled. The thickness of the marzipan must be 0.5 cms. Dust the surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan.
• Leave 2 cm and brush the jam on the marzipan as per the length and breadth of two cake slices. Lay a pink and a plain slice side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing jam in between to stick the sponges.
• Brush more jam on top of the sponges, then sandwich remaining 2 slices on top, alternating colours to give a checkerboard effect. 
• Carefully lift up the marzipan and smooth over the cake with your hands. Trim opposite side to match size of fold, then join the edges using fingers and thumb and smooth it out. Gently press the marzipan onto the cake by rubbing the sides of the cake.
• To get the criss-cross quilted pattern on top I used a ravioli cutter roller.
• This cake can be cling wrapped and frozen upto a month.

Keyword Afternoon Tea, Battenberg Cake, Battenburg Cake, British Cake, Chequered Cake, English Cake, English High Tea, Traditional Cake