Jane’s Patisserie’s Battenburg Cake
Master a true teatime classic with this charming recipe from Jane's Patisserie for Battenburg Cake.
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Jane’s Patisserie Classic
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Introduction
I think everyone has probably seen a Battenberg cake by this point, right? It’s famous for its shape and style, and even colours and flavours – so why not make a homemade version?
I want to show you that this bake is incredibly easy to achieve by yourself, and it’s far less scary than it may look or sound. I went for the classic yellow and pink colours for the sponge, flavoured with vanilla or almond, sandwiched with apricot jam and covered in marzipan. Of course, if you wanted to change up the colours for a theme, this is one of the best bakes in the world for that.
Ingredients
| 250g | unsalted butter or baking spread, at room temperature |
| 250g | caster sugar |
| 4 | eggs |
| 175g | self-raising flour |
| 75g | ground almonds |
| 1 tsp | baking powder |
| 1 tsp | vanilla or almond extract |
| pink food colouring | |
| For the decoration: | |
|---|---|
| 100g | apricot jam |
| 400g | marzipan |
Essential kit
You will need: a 23cm (9in) square tin.
Method
PREP: 30 minutes BAKE: 30–40 minutes COOL: 1 hour DECORATE: 1 hour LASTS: 3 days, at room temperature FREEZE: 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and grab a 23cm (9in) square tin. Make a foil division in the middle of the tin, then line both halves with parchment paper so you get two rectangles. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and extract of choice and mix.
Split into two, and colour one half pink. Pour each into a half of the tin and bake for 30–40 minutes. Leave to cool fully in the tin.
Decoration
Once cooled, cut each cake in half lengthways. Sandwich the cake slices together with apricot jam. Roll out the marzipan to 4–5mm thick, cover the cake with more apricot jam and then completely cover with the marzipan. Serve with the join underneath the cake.
Notes
You can flavour the coloured sponges as you like, such as lemon for the yellow and raspberry for the pink, if you have the flavourings available.
Trim the edges of the sponges so you can fit the layers together neatly.
You can colour the sponges whatever colours you want to suit a theme.
One good top tip – you can use two 900g (2lb) loaf tins instead to make it easier – the bake time for these is 28–32 minutes.
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