Lemon & Almond Battenberg
A twist on a classic battenberg. Made completely from scratch, including the marzipan!
Servings: 6 People
Equipment
- Battenberg Tin
- Stand Mixer
- 2 Mixing Bowls
- Large Baking Tray
- Sieve
- Serrated Knife
Ingredients
The Sponge
- 180 g Unsalted Butter Softened
- 180 g Caster Sugar
- Zest Of 2 Lemons
- 3 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
- 150 g Self Raising Flour
- 50 g Ground Almonds
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Table Salt
- 25 g Lemon Curd
- Red Food Colouring Liquid Or Paste
Marzipan
- 175 g Ground Almonds
- 175 g Icing Sugar Sifted
- 2 tsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Almond Extract
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste
- 25 g Pasteurised Egg White
To Assemble
- 2 tbsp Apricot Jam
Instructions
The Sponge
- Preheat an oven to 180°c/160°c fan (355°f/320°f).Grease the Battenberg tin then line each section with baking parchment.
- Place the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer then rub in the lemon zest. Add in the softened butter then use the paddle attachment to beat the butter until light & fluffy, around 4-5 minutes.
- With the mixer running on a medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Sift together the flour & baking powder then fold into the batter along with the ground almonds, salt, vanilla & almond extract.Once mixed, fold in the lemon curd.
- Weigh the batter then divide equally into 2 bowls.
- Take one half of the batter & divide between 2 sections of the tin.
- Take a spoonful of batter from the other bowl & place into a separate bowl, stir in a couple of drops of food colouring (the batter should be a dark pink colour) then fold back into the batter. Divide the pink batter into the remaining 2 sections of tin.
- Use a palette knife to level off each section of batter (wash your palette knife before using on the other colour batter).
- Place the tin onto a baking tray & bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until risen & a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes then use a sharp, serrated knife to trim the top of the cake so that it is level with the top of the tin.
- Carefully remove each section of cake from the tin then peel off the baking parchment & transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Marzipan
- Place the ground almonds, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, almond extract & egg white into a food processor. Blitz together until a rough dough forms then transfer to a clean worksurface and knead together.
- Wrap the marzipan in clingfilm & refrigerate until the cake is completely cool.
Assembly
- Warm the apricot jam slightly in a microwave then pass through a sieve.
- Take a yellow section of cake & lightly brush jam alongside the right edge. Take a pink section of cake, brush with jam along the left edge then stick the two pieces of cake together.
- Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of cake but the pink cake on the left, yellow on the right.
- Brush jam onto the top of one pair of cake then place the other pair on top.
- Next, dust a clean worksurface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan out so that it is just longer than the cake & wide enough to completely cover, roughly 30cm x 25cm.
- Brush along the centre of the marzipan with apricot jam (the same width as the sponge) then place the sponge on top.
- Brush the top & sides of the sponge with the remaining jam then gently wrap the marzipan tightly around the sponge. Pinch the marzipan together along the middle of the top edge to form a seam then flip the Battenberg upside & drag across a worksurface (dusted lightly with icing sugar) to seal.
- Trim each end slightly with a serrated knife to expose the checkerboard pattern then serve.
Notes
To cook in an Aga, bake in the baking oven on the bottom set of runners.
Kept in an airtight container, this cake will keep for 2-3 days.
Feel free to use ready made marzipan if you would prefer.