Battenberg cake

This was defiantly a taxing task, and i ended up making 5 cakes just to find a good recipe and there are so many recipes that i found that failed.

First i made a recipe from the BBC website and it used ground almonds in the cake this was the biggest fail the cake never cooked even though i cooked it for twice as long as the recommend time and it was still uncooked and ground almonds just made the cake thick, heavy and stodgy, i wonder do these people test there recipes?. Next i surfed you tube and someone had a recipe i tried it cooked fine but the taste test was just cake in marzipan and had no taste of Battenberg or texture.  Finally i turned  Mary berry and tried her recipe and it was ok light and fluffy but it used ground rice in it and was a bit crunchy in areas.

Next was colour issues with the pink part, i was using Dr Oetkar, in the first batch i used twice the amount of the colour Mary recommended and as you can see above the mix is defiantly PINK but when it is cooked the pink disappeared as you can see in the below

So another cook of the pink section with 8 times the colour see below

 and HEY PRESTO Pink disappear

OK time to ditch the Dr and go back to my reliable Wiltons and a pink of this gave the results required first time and as you can see from the very top picture Wiltons didnt not let me down.

I also found that making a Battenberg you have to be incredibly accurate and the first bake i made in a normal square tin i ended up trimming and trimming to get it perfect loosing lots of cake and never getting quite right.  Then i found this special Battenberg tin on Amazon with separators and now i have perfect cubes of cake every time i use it.

Finally i have the perfect recipe, tin and marzipan to make a Battenberg cake and of course my little helper 

Ingredients

pre heat the oven at 160c

200g soften butter

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

100g ground rice

200g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

almond extract

WILTONS pink food colouring

First measure out all your ingredients and place in a bowl this is a great recipe as you just put everything in the bowl and don't have to cream the butter and sugar together.

Whisk the eggs and add these too, and then whisk everything together for 1 min then scrap down the sides and whisk for another good min everything should be well mixed and fluffy. I then get two bowls and measure out the cake mix to give and even qty in each, I add the pink food colouring to the second bowl and stir in well. then i divide all of this between the four compartments of the tin and cook at 160 for 30 mins     

Once the cake has cooled down just chop the top off across the top of the tin and turn out and you should have 4 perfect cubes of cake to put together. (The below has a shot of one of my non pink failings )

Assembling is very easy but i completely forgot to take pictures. Place a yellow and pink bit as a base and brush generous amounts of apricot jam on the sides that touch and push together then brush the top of the pink and yellow and then add another layer of pink and yellow cake but the opposite way round to the base. Make sure you cover all the inside of pink and yellow cake and push together so the apricot jam is like a cross inside the now larger cube of cake. 

Roll out the marzipan recipe found here brush where you want the base of the cake to sit and then place your Battenberg on top brush one side and the top of your cake with more jam and gently fold up and press the marzipan to the cake, then do the same to the other side and trim.  Use a wet knife to bring together the join of the marzipan leave to dry and dust a little icing sugar over the seam so it isnt sticky and turn this part upside down so it becomes the base of your cake.  Then trim any marzipan and trim each side of your cake to show off its colours.

Home made Marzipan

I have never made home made marzipan before, but as i was making a Battenburg cake i wanted to make the marzipan by hand to, well i say i and your start to think if you have read my cooking pages that i do nothing in the kitchen now and your be right.  After tasting the marzipan i thought it was so much nicer than shop bought and i will make this for the Christmas cake now especially as there is only 3 steps to make marzipan.


Ingredients
200g Ground almonds
100g Icing sugar
100g Caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp lemon juice
Almond extract

Put all the dry ingredients together and mix

Add lemon juice, almond extract to eggs and lightly whisk

Add the wet and dry mix with a spoon until pulled together then need till smooth, so easy a 2 year old could do this.

Easter Simnel cake

If you fancy something other than hot cross buns this Easter or like us you have family coming to visit and want to make something special, here is a recipe for a light fruit cake with chocolate and marzipan all topped off with mini eggs it really is just delicious as Sophie proves with a face plant to gobble it up.

Recipe
This recipe makes 1 big cake
175g light brown sugar
175g butter
4 large eggs
230g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
350g mixed fruit
100g glace cherries halved
150g 70% chocolate
2 tbs milk
450g natural marzipan
apricot jam
mini speckled eggs
edible glitter optional

• Heat oven to 180 /gas 4
• Grease a deep 20cm tin
• Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Gradually add beaten eggs
• Add almond, flour, baking powder and salt and mix
• Add fruit and cherries, roughly broken chocolate and milk and mix
• Spoon half mix into tin and add 1/3 of the marzipan rolled out top with the rest of the mix
• Bake for 30 mins at 180 then turn down to 170 and bake for 50 - 60 min or until you can insert a skewer and it is clean on removal
• Cool completely before covering the top in apricot jam and the rest of the 2/3 marzipan  
• Decorate with gold edible glitter and mini eggs