Battenberg cake with vanilla, almond and rose

At my recent birthday coffee I decided to bake a Battenberg cake. I first meet the concept of Battenberg cakes, when I first took part in afternoon tea course at Denham.

A Battenberg cake is two sponge cakes with different colours and flavourings, which are baked as individual cakes. After the baking the two cakes are cut into four long slices, which when are glued together with apricot jam and finally covered with marzipan. So you end up with two cakes, which have a square pattern, when you cut it.

I used this recipe on Battenberg cake with a few modifications. Instead of 2 x 500 marzipan, I used 2 x 375 g marzipan. If you roll the marzipan thinner, when you can actually use less marzipan. When you buy marzipan outside the season of Christmas, it is difficult to find marzipan with discount price.
I also decide to add rose flaouring into the pink sponge cake, however I could not taste any hint of rose after the baking.

As the assembled of the Battenberg cake takes some time, I will recommend, that you bake the cake the day, before you need to serve it.

Battenberg cake: - 2 cakes

Almond sponge cake:

• 175 g soft butter
• 175 g sugar
• 140 g (cake) wheat flour
• 50 g almond - grounded into flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• a few drops of bitter almond flavouring

Pink sponge cake:

• 175 g soft butter
• 175 g sugar
• 140 g (cake) wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1½ teaspoon rose flavouring
• 2-3 teaspoons red colour

Cake assemble:

• 200 g apricot jam
• 2 x 375 g marzipan
• Icing sugar for dusting

Sponge cake baking:

1. Heat the oven to 180 'C.
2. Start by adding the sugar and soft butter into a mixing bowl, where these two ingredients are whipped into a foamy mass.
3. Afterwards add in the flour and almond flour (only into the almond sponge), baking powder,  flavourings and red colour (only the pink spoge cake) mix into the homogeneous mass.
4. Add in the eggs one by one egg, whip the cake mass after addition of each egg.
5. Pour the sponge cake dough into a silicone bread form of approx 20 cm length.
6. Bake each cake at 180'C for approx 30-40 min in the middle of the oven.
7. Check, that the cake is baked, before removing it from the oven.
8. Let the cake cool down, before removing it from the silicone bread form.
9. Bake the second sponge cake.

Cake assemble:

1. Trim both cakes into long square shape, which have equal length and height.
2. Divide each cake into four long slices of equal size.
3. Heat up the apricot jam in a cooking pot.
4. Take a white and pink sponge cake piece, where one of the long of slices are brushed with apricot jam. Glue the two pieces together. This is the bottom layer of the cake
5. Brush the top of the white sponge cake with apricot jam, and place a slice of pink sponge cake on top.
6. Brush the sides of the two pink sponge cake (one top and one bottom layer) with apricot jam and place with the white sponge cake here. The Battenberg cake is now ready to be covered with marzipan.
7. Repeat the process for the second Battenberg cake.
8. Roll out each marzipan block, so the size can cover all of the sponge cake.
9. Brush the surface of the assembled sponge cake with apricot jam and cover the sides and top of the cake with the rolled marzipan. The bottom of Battenberg cake is not covered by marzipan.
10. Place the Battenberg cake in an airtight container, until it should be served.