Battenberg Cake Recipe!
- clemievegancake
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Make this delicious vanilla and almond checked sponge cake, filled with apricot jam and wrapped in marzipan.
Battenberg cakes look more complicated than they really are! You simply bake your two sponges, then trim them into strips. Most supermarket own brand marzipan is accidently vegan, so just roll it out into a rectangle large enough to go around your cake, then glue all your sponge strips into place with the apricot jam. Carefully roll the marzipan around your cake, then use a sharp knife to trim the ends and reveal the checkered sponge!
The cake is best eaten within about four days while it is freshest or you can freeze the whole cake or slices of cake for longer. Store in an airtight food container in a cool and dry place.
Makes one 10" long cake
320g plain flour
190g granulated or caster sugar
20g baking powder
1 tsp vanilla powder
90g sunflower oil
10g cider vinegar
340g soya milk
5g almond extract
Pink and yellow food colouring
Apricot jam
1 packet yellow marzipan
2-3 tbs icing sugar for dusting
You will also need; two mixing bowls, 7" x 11" baking tin, baking paper, kitchen foil, whisk, jug, spoons, sharp knife, rolling pin
How to make your cake;
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F
Fold up a large square of kitchen foil into a thick strip, then place the strip down the middle of the baking tin to make two sections. Line both sections of the baking tin with baking paper, this will make sure your cake does not stick
In a jug, make the plant milk mixture by adding the plant milk to the vinegar. Set aside
In a mixing bowl, sieve in the flour then add the sugar, vanilla powder and baking powder. Use a whisk to mix together
Add the sunflower oil, plant milk mixture to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and whisk again making sure there are no lumps of flour
Separate the mixture evenly into two bowls. Add a tiny drop of pink food colouring to one bowl and gently mix together. Add this to one section of your baking tin. This will be the pink vanilla sponge.
Add the almond extract and a tiny drop of yellow to the second bowl and gently mix together. Add this to the second section of the baking tin. This will be the yellow almond sponge.
Bake for around 20-25 minutes until lightly golden and a cocktail stick comes out clean
Leave until completely cool
Once your cake is cooled, begin to trim the sponges into even strips. I used a palette knife as my 'ruler' to make sure each sponge strip is the same size
Remove the pink vanilla sponge from the baking tin and trim a few mm off the long edges. Using a ruler or palette knife, measure and then trim the sponge into two long, even strips. Set these aside and repeat on the yellow sponge so that you have two pink and two yellow strips of sponge which are completely squared off on each edge
Set the trimmed sponges aside and lay a sheet of baking paper on your worktop This will make it much easier to roll the marzipan around your cake
Lightly dust the baking paper with icing sugar to prevent the marzipan sticking, then use a rolling pin to roll out the block of marzipan into a large rectangle. The rectangle needs to be as wide as the length of your sponge strips and wide enough to wrap all around the cake
Use a knife or the back of a spoon and spread a thin layer of apricot jam all over the rectangle of marzipan
Place you first yellow sponge strip slightly to the left of the centre of the marzipan
Spread more apricot jam along the inside length of the yellow sponge, then place the first pink sponge next to it and gently press them together. The jam should 'glue' the cakes together
Now spread jam over the tops of both the yellow and pink sponge. Place the second pink sponge on top of the first yellow sponge and repeat spreading the inside length with more jam
Place the second yellow sponge on top of the first pink sponge and press together as before, to glue the sponges together
You should now have a checked square of sponges, with a pink sponge on top of a yellow sponge and a yellow sponge on top of a pink sponge
Carefully slide your hand underneath the baking paper and lift up the marzipan to wrap over the side of the stacked sponges. Gently press the marzipan onto the cake and square off the edges
Using the baking paper to help you, roll the whole cake over on to it's side, then roll again trying to keep the marzipan tight to the cake. The whole cake should now be wrapped in marzipan
Use a sharp knife to trim off any excess marzipan, so that you have a neatly wrapped sponge with square edges
Carefully saw through the cake to cut the first slice and reveal the neatly checked sponges inside. You can repeat this on the other end to neaten them up and make the cake a tidy rectangle
Now your cake is ready to slice and eat!
Tips & Tricks!
Most supermarket own brand marzipan is accidently vegan, but do check the labels
My palette knife 'ruler' was around 1.5" wide. It does not really matter exactly how wide you cut each strip of sponge as long as you have two strips of pink and two strips of yellow which are completely evenly cut on all sides. The more even each sponge is trimmed, the neater the square checked pattern will be. Don't worry if your sponge strips are slightly wonky or a bit more rectangular rather than square, the cake will still taste delicious!
This is my cake tin - my tin is 7" x 11" x 2" - https://amzn.to/45YU9Do
These are my mixing bowls - https://amzn.to/489iB6s
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