Chocolate and Vanilla Battenburg Cake
This cake was inspired by the Great British Bake-off, where each episode has a technical bake. This is a challenge each person has to undertake – tackling a recipe they have only just seen, with basically no instructions save the ingredients list. The first episode was cake and the first technical bake – you guessed it. Battenburg cake. Coffee and walnut in this case. You can see the actual recipe on amazon.co.uk. I had a go and changed it to chocolate/walnut and vanilla. I also made my own marzipan (use bought marzipan?? Oh my garden). But follow instructions and all will be well…
Ingredients:
- 80 g SR flour (+ 10g more, you’ll see)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 10g cocoa
- 100g sugar
- 100g butter
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 50 g ground almonds
- 25 g chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 100g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 40 g butter
- milk, if needed
- 85g icing sugar , plus extra for dusting
- 85 g castor sugar
- 120g ground almonds
- 1/2 egg plus 1/2 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp almond essence
1. Preheat the oven to 180 oc / gas mark 5. Grease a 20cm square cake tin. To line, instead of buying the silly expensive half-foil-half-baking paper they suggest, try greasing one side of baking paper wide enough for the base of the tin and the same length plus double the height (usually give youtself an extra 4-5 inches). Carefully stick a piece of tin foil to the greased paper and smooth. This has now given you reinforced baking paper! Now use this to line the tin, with a partition in the centre of the tin to separate what will be the two different flavours of cake.
2. Next to make the batter, you will need several bowls. In the first, large, mixing bowl, cream together all the butter, sugar, essence, and then stir in the ground almonds. Sift over the 80g SR flour and baking powder, then on top add the beaten eggs. Mix quickly till smooth, then move half to a separate bowl. To this, sift over the cocoa and mix, then fold in the walnuts. To the other, sift over the extra 10g flour. Add a little milk to both or either bowl if the mixture feels too stiff (it should drop off the spoon with a sharp tap). Pour each mixture into a different section of the tin, and bake for around 20 mins or until the cakes are risen and spring back when pressed. Leave to cool a while in the tin, before turning onto a wire cooling rack.
3. While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream by using an electric mixer to combine the cocoa, butter and icing sugar, using a little milk if the consistency is too thick. When the sponge is done, cut each colour in half, to make two rectangles. Trim them if needed to make sure all are the same size. Use the buttercream to now sandwich all four pieces together in a checkerboard pattern, spreading buttercream between each join. Trim again, and then spread more buttercream over the entire length and sides of the battenburg.
4. Finally, make the marzipan. Sift together the sugars and almonds, then beat the egg and stir in along with the essence. Bring the mixture together with your hands, then turn out onto a surface dusted with icing sugar, and knead until smooth. Roll out the marzipan until it is fairly thin, with dimensions that are the same length as your cake and wide enough to wrap round the entire battenburg (you can use a piece of string to estimate how long this is). When the correct size, wrap the cake in the marzipan, which should stick thanks to the buttercream you applied. If you were greedy and ate too much buttercream this may now be trickier. Gently press the join together and turn the cake over so that the seam is the underside of the cake. To finish, dust with icing sugar and top with minstrels or walnuts. Done!
For more cakey bakey goodness, visit www.thebakeescape.co.uk
@peachtreesbbees …Well, I do like the look of that ! just yummy !
@peachtreesbbees oh my it looks divine now all I need is @byKarenEmma to join me for some on this #Mayday with a spot of tea :)
Oh my word, this looks so decadent it has got to be sinful. Battenberg makes me smile, makes me think of being little and picking off all the marzipan first and then eating the sponge squares individually with a glass of milk :)
@peachtreesbbees Battenburg cake is seriously underestimated. This proves why battenburg is so awesome!
@peachtreesbbees did Mary Berry’s the other day, it was gorgeous! http://t.co/VkcyLSV0
@peachtreesbbees I’ve baked both versions from the #GBBO as part of my recipe challenge/ blog! Loved Mary Berry’s coffee and walnut version.
@YorkshireBakery ooh sounds lovely! You must tweet us a pic! :)
Chocolate is any product made primarily of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.