Well folks, today I made an attempt at baking a Battenburg cake. As you know cakes is an area of development for me so I wanted to give this a try.
Reading the recipe it looked like a good starting cake, oh was I wrong. Like you saw on the latest season of the Great British Baking Show it gave those bakers quite a challenge too.
The first major issue I had, was not having the correct baking tin size. It asked for a 7×7 square tin but I only had a 9×9. I had a loaf tin that would give me the size I needed but I would just have to bake the colored sponge separately which didn’t seem like a big deal.
I need to invest in an adjustable size square tin as I cannot afford to buy every size. If I had the right tin, it would have helped getting the square shape easier so it Would have looked neater.
The almond sponges, however came out good and there was no issue with coloring the second sponge. Instead or buying marzipan or almond paste to cover the cake, I thought I would be brave and make my own. This was the biggest mistake of the entire bake. For some reason my almond paste was too moist so rolling it out to cover the cake was an absolute nightmare. I rolled it out on the counter with a dusting of icing sugar as suggested, but it kept sticking to my granite countertop Maybe in hindsight I should have rolled It on parchment paper. Then, it would have being easier to transfer it onto the cake. If you made this cake before and have any suggestions or ideas for working with almond paste please leave a comment below, I would love to know how to best work with this paste .
Overall though, I can see why people love this cake so much. The almond sponges are a perfect compliment to a cup of tea or coffee. Almond is delicious but you could also try different flavors too, if you want to be adventurous. I will definitely make this cake again and can use what I learned to hopefully make it easier next time.
Would love to hear from others on the comments below, if you Have baked this cake.
