Battenberg cake

Hi and hope you are having a great Wednesday so far? Today I share with you a light sponge cake recipe known as Battenberg. It also gets its name from the arrangement of a pink and a yellow cake. I have always wanted to tried baking with Marzipan(Almond paste) so this recipe was perfect. The marzipan covers the outside of the cake. Its a fairly easy recipe and the assembling is what takes the most time. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter softened

1 cup sugar

3 extra large eggs lightly beaten

11/2 cups self-rising flour sifted

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp red coloring

1/2 tsp rose water or vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1lb marzipan (Found at world cost market or any specialty baking store)

6 tbsp apricot jam

2 tbsp sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a jelly roll pan. Lightly grease the base and line it with baking parchment.

Cut a strip of cardboard to fit the inside of the tin. Cover with foil, lightly grease and wedge in place. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and beat well. Lightly folding the flour and salt. 

Put half the mixture in a  clean bowl and mix in the red food coloring and rose or vanilla extract until evenly tinted. Turn into one side of the tin. Mix the almond extract into the remaining batter and turn into the empty side of the tin. Smooth into the corners.

Bake for 20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Leave to stand for 5 minutes. Slide the blade of a knife between the cake, tin and foil strip, and turn out on to a wire rack lined with silicone paper. Remove the lining paper. Leave to go cold. 

Trim the cake and cut each slab in half lengthways so there are four equal pieces. 

In a pan, bring the jam and sugar slowly to the boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the heat. 

To assemble the cake, brush the top of each plain cake strip with the syrup and press a pink strip on top. Brush one side of each cake stack with syrup and press them together to make a checkerboard pattern. Roll out the marzipan to an 11 inch square. Brush the cake top with syrup, and place the cake syrup-side down 1/2 inch from one edge of the marzipan. Brush the rest of the cake with syrup. Wrap the marzipan over and around the cake, smoothing it firmly with your hand, Press firmly to seal. Trim away any excess marzipan.