Battenberg Cake

As the children are of on there holidays I like to encourage them to bake. Emma has chosen a Battenberg  cake, but James also helped to cook it.

You will need

100g (4oz) softened butter
100g (4oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
50g ground rice
100g (4oz) self raising flour
1/2 level teaspoon of baking powder
A few drops of almond extract
Red food colouring

To finish-
3-4 tablespoons of apricot jam
225g (8oz) of marzipan or almond paste.


1- Pre-heat the oven 160C / Gas 3. Grease an 18cm (7") shallow square tin and line with baking parchment as shown below. Emma spotted this in the Great British Bake Off.

2- Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, ground rice, flour, baking powder and almond extract into a large bowl and beat for 2 minutes or until smooth.

3- spoon half the mixture into one side of the prepared tin case. Add a few drops of red food colouring to the mixture left in the bowl and stir in. Add this to the other half of the tin and smooth the top.

4- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and has shrunk slightly from the tins edge.
Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out peel of parchment and cool on a wire rack.

 5- trim the edges of the cake and then cut them into four equal parts. You need 2 pink and 2 plain strips.
Gently warm the apricot jam in a small pan. Use the warmed jam to stick the four strips together to make a chequer board effect. Brush the top of the assembled cake with jam.

6- Roll out the marzipan or almond paste into a oblong the length of the cake. Add the jammed side cake to the marzipan or almond paste and brush the remaining sides with jam. Press the marzipan  or almond paste neatly around the cake arranging a join line in one if the edges. Score the top of the cake with a criss- cross pattern and crimp the edges with your fingers to finish.

Emma and James had great fun making this and also taking all the photos and they went!
The Batternberg........ it was delicious.