Here we are again with English pastries… and how good the Battenberg Cake is! and how beautiful it is when you cut the slice and discover the yellow and pink checkerboard. Perfect for five o’clock tea, it will amaze you with its very soft consistency and almond scent. The dessert was created in 1884 to celebrate the wedding of Prince Louis of Battenberg with Princess Victoria, none other than the Queen’s granddaughter whose name it bore…
Ingredients
- 175 g of soft butter
- 175 g of flour
- 175 g of granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 teaspoons of baking powder
- 65 g of almond flour
- Vanilla
- 100 g of blended apricot jam
- 200 g of marzipan
- a pinch of red food coloring (better if in gel)
Set the oven at 180°C and butter or line two 20cm plumcake molds with baking paper. If you only have one, don’t worry, you will bake one dough at a time!
Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the mixture is light and slightly puffy. Add the eggs one at a time and do not add the next one if the first one is not completely mixed. Add the sifted flour with the baking powder and the almond flour, beat very well until the ingredients are blended and you have a homogeneous, very soft and light dough, it almost looks like a cloud.
Divide the dough into two equal parts. Add a little red coloring to one of the parts, adding a few drops at a time until you have the desired color and level with the spatula.
Bake the dough for 25-30 minutes or until the cakes are cooked: they must not become crunchy on the surface, you can test with a toothpick. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out. Move the cakes onto a cake rack and leave to cool completely. Even the cakes by cutting the top to obtain a perfect rectangle. Divide each cake into two equal parts by cutting it along the long side.
Overlap the pieces forming a single rectangle and finish the edges. Spread the cake cylinders with apricot jam to form a brick and coat the outside with jam too.
Place in the fridge to “dry and consolidate” for about 30 minutes.
Roll out the marzipan into a single disk about half a cm thick.
Gently wrap the cake, closing it downwards and finish the edges with a knife.
Seal well with your hands and make sure that the sealed part is placed towards the bottom of the dish.
To decorate it I used the back of a knife to create a diamond grid and some colored sprinkles.
Battenberg Cake is beautiful and delicious! When you cut the first slice it’s a small emotion…
