S2E1 Technical: Battenberg Cake

This week's technical challenge is another classic: the Battenberg cake! 

For those who are not familiar, the Battenberg is a two-tone almond-based checkerboard cake. I have never made this cake before because it is wrapped in marzipan, which I really do not like. I don't particularly enjoy the taste of almond extract in general. In the past, however, I have learned how to make things that I didn't previously like, only to love them once I'd made them myself. So really, how bad could it be? I found a recipe for marzipan and made it the night before this bake (the bakers used shop-bought marzipan on the show, so I didn't include it in the allotted challenge time).

For this challenge, the judges decided to assign a variation on the classic Battenberg, flavouring this one with coffee and walnuts instead of the classic pink and yellow almond cake. The recipe was created by Mary Berry, and I am grateful that she uses a coffee buttercream to glue the cake together instead of jam. I think I have already solidified the fact that I'm not a jam person. 

I have 2 hours for this bake, let's do it.

I started by lining my tin with my lining paste, and then I trimmed a piece of parchment paper and folded it to create two rectangular half-tins. 

Next, I measured my margarine, flour, sugar, eggs, almond flour, and baking powder into a bowl and beat them until smooth.

Then, I divided the batter roughly in half. Into one half, I added a little milk and vanilla. Into the other, I mixed milk, instant coffee, and chopped walnut pieces.

I then spread each half into their own side of my cake tin, trying to keep the sides even and the divider upright, and then I put the tin in the oven for 35 minutes. 

When they came out, I was a little disappointed. The vanilla half of the cake was bigger than the coffee half, causing it to push the divider over the half-way point and giving me uneven cakes. I was worried that because the halves weren't even, I would need to trim a lot off of them to get four even square logs.

I let them cool in their tray for 5 minutes and then turned them out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.

While they were cooling, I made my butter icing. This was a simple mixture of icing sugar, margarine, milk and instant coffee powder all whipped together into a smooth paste. Once properly mixed, I set it aside and set to work on trimming my cakes.

I started by trimming the domed top off of the coffee cake (since it was smaller), and then did my best to achieve a similar height out of my vanilla cake. I cut two strips out of my vanilla cake and used them as a guide for my coffee strips. The four parts ended up being fairly even, if not a bit lopsided, but it could have been way worse. I definitely trimmed more off of these cakes than I would have if they had been evenly measured out, which means that my cake ended up being smaller than it was intended to be.

Next, I rolled out my homemade marzipan. I was extremely pleased with how well it rolled out!

Then I glued my cake pieces together using the coffee butter icing.

I spread icing over one whole side of the cake and placed it icing-down onto the prepared marzipan. Once properly positioned, I coated the rest of the cake in icing and carefully wrapped it in the marzipan. 

I trimmed off the excess marzipan and then gently pressed the sides to glue the marzipan to the cake. I pinched the edges together and then trimmed off the rough bits.

And then it was time for the cross-section reveal.

The knife wasn't sharp enough so I got another one. Now it was time for the cross-section reveal. 

The second knife wasn't sharp enough either so I decided that a bread knife was probably better. NOW it was time for the cross-section reveal.

Not too bad! My cutting skills are lacking a bit though. I repeated the same on the other side, and then lightly sliced five diagonal lines into the top of the cake. 

Finally, I used a final little bit of icing to secure five walnuts onto the top.

And voilà!

Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

The marzipan actually tasted really lovely. Despite the fact that it definitely tasted like almond extract, the balance of sweetness and texture was surprisingly nice. The cake tasted very good, although the edges were a little crispy since I didn't trim the bottoms off of any of the pieces to conserve as much cake as I could. 

This cake was easier to assemble than I expected, but I definitely need to work on my Battenberg baking technique!

Recipes used:

Marzipan: https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-make-marzipan-almond-paste/

Battenberg cake: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/coffee_and_walnut_88342