Downton Inspired/A Battenberg Cake

“I do think a woman’s place is eventually in the home, but I see no harm in her having some fun before she gets there.”

– Dowager Countess

Hello, sweet friend…

I hope you are doing well…

Joe and I are heading out of town for the weekend. I am looking forward to this little getaway since it will include a movie date to watch the new Downton Abbey film ‘A New Era’.

In anticipation of this excursion I ordered the Downton Abbey cookbook and selected a recipe to prepare.

I love the cookbook and plan on baking more recipes in the future.

BATTENBERG CAKE

This was a fun cake to make. it’s so pretty! A traditional pink and yellow check sponge, sandwiched with jam and covered in Marzipan. A classic English cake for teatime.

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon almond extract 
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 -3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1- 3 drops red or pink food coloring

To decorate:

• 1/3 cup  apricot jam
• confectioners’ sugar for dusting
• 1 tube (7 oz.) Marzipan

(You can use an 8×8 square bake pan or 2 loaf pans)

Instructions

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• Line the base of the tin(s) with baking parchment (not necessary for loaf tins if they are non-stick).

To make the cake:

• Put all the cake ingredients, except the coloring, into a large bowl or mixer/processor and beat well until smooth. (Butter, sugar, eggs, milk, almond extract, flour, baking powder)
• Divide the mixture in two. Spoon half the mixture into one side of the tin and level the top. Quickly mix the coloring into the other half of the mixture until you have an even pink color and spoon into the other side of the tin, carefully levelling the top.If you are using 2 tins, put one color cake into each tin.
• For a single cake, bake for 30-35 minutes. For 2 loaf cakes, bake for 25-30 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean or the top bounces back when you press it gently with your finger. Cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

To assemble:

• Make sure the cake is completely cool.Cut the pink cake from the white one if necessary. Place both cakes on a board and trim the sides to give straight edges and to make the cakes the same size. Cut each cake in half lengthwise to give four equal strips
• Warm the jam in a small pan or microwave. Roll out the marzipan between 2 pieces of clingfilm and trim to make a rectangle about 8×12. Remove the top piece of clingfilm
• Spread each piece of cake with jam on all the long sides and sandwich together in alternating pairs
• Place the cake in the middle of the marzipan and wrap it up tightly using the clingfilm to pull the marzipan up and round, smoothing it on to the cake with your fingers. The edges should meet in the middle of one side. If you have a gap, smooth the marzipan edges together with your fingers. Trim the edges of the marzipanned cake to neaten.

You can watch the video to see how I made mine.