Michael and Rachel's

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Battenberg Cake

Updated: 25 Apr 2015

Ingredients

  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temp
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp strawberry extract

  • Pink food colouring gel

  • 100g unsalted butter

  • 200g icing sugar

  • 1 tsp vanilla

  • 250g marzipan

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
  2. Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin. Arrange greaseproof paper with a pleat to divide the tin in two (ask Michael).
  3. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy; then gradually add the eggs then the flour, baking powder, and ground almonds.
  4. When smooth and well-combined separate the mixture in two.
  5. Add the vanilla extract to one half then pour into the tin.
  6. Add strawberry extract and pink food colouring to the other half; beat until the colour is well combined. Make sure to scrape the bottom.
  7. Add to the other half of the tin. Level the tops then bake for about 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown and starting to come away from the edges of the tin. Check with a cake taster.
  8. Allow to cool slightly then turn out of the tin and allow to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the buttercream and roll out the marzipan until it's as long as the cake in one direction and wide enough to wrap around the cake - 250g rolled to 2mm thick.
  9. Trim the ends of the cooled cake. Cut each one in half. The aim is four equally sized long rectangles of cake.
  10. Sandwich a yellow and a pink one together, then sandwich together the remaining ones. Spread buttercream along the top surface of the yellow/pink brick and add the other one on top to create the alternating pattern.
  11. Spread buttercream on the top and one side of the cake then use a cake lifter to transfer onto the marzipan. Gently rotate so that it lands buttercream side down. Smoothly apply the marzipan then wrap around. Seal the join with a tiny bit of buttercream cement or a few dabs of water.
  12. Crimp the edges; use any extra marzipan or offcuts to decorate. Trim the ends to neaten up.

N.B alternative recipe suggests using apricot jam for assembly rather than buttercream.