Battenburg Cake p. 167

I wasn't able to do any baking last week due to a difficult week with M&M. She is having problems with her feed and it looks likely that she is allergic or intolerant to cows milk. She is much better now we've got some special milk for her but this will be discussed further in the coming week with the doctors. She's been much better over the weekend so I am now at the stage where I can start thinking about baking again. I've decided the best way to fit this in is to have a day each week where I make my creations. This is Mondays. 

So this week I've been through the books and decided to try out some new recipes. This week I'm making battenburg cake and almond macaroons. I found the recipe for battenburg cake in Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook P. 467. I have never attempted a battenburg cake before but it seems like a basic idea and something I should try. 

The first step is line the square tin with greaseproof paper. 

Cake lined with greaseproof paper.

The cake mixture is just a standard sponge cake, one half is flavoured with vanilla essence whilst the other is chocolate. These are added to the tin half and half.

Sponge in the tin ready to be baked.

This was then baked in the oven for around 30mins. Once cooked it was placed on a cooling rack and left to cool.

Cooked and cooling.

Once cooled the cake is cut into 4 equal strips, 2 in each colour. Heat the apricot jam to melt it and then use this as the glue to stick together the 4 pieces of sponge in a chequed pattern. Roll out the marzipan so it'll cover the cake and then, using the jam, wrap it around the cake. Cut off the ends to neaten it up. 

Finished cake. 

The cake is now ready to be sliced and eaten. 

The verdict: The cake tasted very nice and the recipe was straightforward and easy to follow. I'm pleased I managed to achieve this but it wasn't as neat as I would have hoped. The marzipan was very sticky and even time in the fridge didn't cure this and make it more solid. I'm not sure if this is a fault with the marzipan or me, maybe I should have rolled it on icing sugar to dry it up rather than in cling film. The only other thing was the recipe stated I should use ground rice but I didn't manage to find this in the supermarket so I used extra flour instead. The cake went down well with Gary's work collegues and apparently disappeared very quickly. Probably not a recipe I would make again but a decent cake. 7/10.