A neat little variation of a total classic! Perfect for a little nibble with a cuppa, or for a showstopper birthday cake, this recipe will suit every occasion.
Ingredients
175g soft butter
175g golden caster sugar
140g gluten free self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3 medium eggs
Lemon sponge
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Zest from 2 lemons
Raspberry sponge
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp raspberry extract
1/2 tsp pink food colouring
To assemble
100g lemon curd
100g raspberry jam
2 blocks white marzipan
A little icing sugar
Optional extras include crystallised lemon, freeze dried raspberries or flaked almonds.
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Grease and line two loaf tins with baking parchment (the easiest way is to cross 2 x 20cm-long strips over the base). Lemon sponge: Place the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest in a large bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until the mix comes together smoothly. Scrape into the tin, spreading to the corners, and bake for 30-35 mins – when you poke in a skewer, it should come out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you make the second sponge. Raspberry sponge: Mix all the ingredients together as above, switching the lemon for raspberry extract. Fold in the pink food colouring. Then scrape it all into the tin and bake as above. Cool.
To assemble, heat the jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve.
Trim the sides of the lemon sponge, then turn on its side and Trim the top and bottom of your sponge so you have a straight sides. Roughly measure the height of the sponge, then cutting from the well-trimmed edge, use a ruler to help you cut your cake into two equal long square shaped cakes, each with the same width and height. Repeat with pink cake.
Take your lemon and raspberry slices and trim so they are all the same length and height. Roll out one marzipan block on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to just over 20cm wide, then keep rolling lengthways until the marzipan is roughly 0.5cm thick. Brush with raspberry jam, then lay a pink and an almond slice side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing lemon curd in between to stick sponges together, and leaving 4cm clear marzipan at the end. Brush more curd on top of the sponges, then sandwich remaining 2 slices on top, alternating colours to give a checkerboard effect. Trim the marzipan to the length of the cakes.
Carefully lift up the marzipan and smooth over the cake with your hands, leaving a small marzipan fold along the bottom edge before you stick it to the first side. Fold over the cake, applying gentle pressure to enable to jam to stick to the cake. Trim opposite side to match size of fold, then crimp both folds using the prongs of fork.
At this point the Battenberg can be left as it is, for a more traditional look, or decorated. To decorate, simply brush a thin layer of lemon curd over the outside of the marzipan and gently apply your raspberries, toasted almonds and crystallised lemon (or anything else you fancy!).
Keep in an airtight box or well wrapped in cling film for up to 3 days. Can be frozen for up to a month.
This recipe does leave you with a lot of excess cake, so check out my Cake-pop recipe for an alternative sweet treat ensuring those yummy scraps don’t go to waste!
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