Juliet Sear's classic Battenberg cake
With the nation preparing for the King's Coronation next weekend Juliet Sear is visiting some of the places close to his heart and whipping up some recipes fit for a king. She begins at Highgrove House, King Charles's country home, which is known for its fabulous and vibrant gardens. Here she picks up some jam to make a classic Battenberg cake, which was named in honour of the wedding of Queen Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884.
Royal Battenberg
Serves: 8
Ingredients
200g really soft butter
175g golden caster sugar
½-1 tsp almond extract (to taste)
3 medium eggs
60g ground almonds
140g self-raising flour
¾ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
Pink food colouring gel
To decorate:
3-4 tbsp honey
Icing sugar, for dusting
500g pack white marzipan
If making a Highgrove honey bee: You will need a little cocoa powder, some gold sparkle dust and some flaked almonds
Method:
1. Heat oven to 160 C fan/3.
2. Line a 20cm square tin with two strips of baking paper, one needs to be double the width of the tin for you to create the seam in the centre to divide the tin into two.
3. Cream the butter, sugar and almond extract for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.
4. Dry whisk the almonds, flour and baking powder then add to the creamed butter mixture and gently combine. Add the milk and mix through to loosen the mix.
5. Weigh the mixture, divide in half and tint one half pink using the pink food colour gel. Add the pink mixture into one side of the tin, and the uncoloured mixture into the other side. Spread both mixtures to the edges of their sections. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, carefully removing the paper.
6. To assemble if the cakes have risen and have a bit of a hump, trim to level. Place the cakes on top of each other and trim both on the long edges to make them equal then measure them in half and divide into two equal lengths so you have 4 lengths.
7. Warm the honey in a microwave for 20-30 seconds so it’s easier to spread thinly or heat in a pan.
8. Knead the marzipan until it is very soft and pliable. Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar, then roll out the marzipan to a rectangle roughly 22 x 32cm.
9. Brush the marzipan with honey and place a length of sponge onto it. Brush the sponge with honey and join on the second color sponge, then build up with the next two lengths with the opposing colour sitting on top of each one below to create the chequerboard effect using honey to stick them.
10. Brush over honey outside of the assembled cake. Using a rolling pin to help, lift the marzipan over the cake. On either side. Trim through both to create a neat join and take off the excess. If you have cake smoothers you can use these to push the marzipan against the cake to make it straight and neat without finger marks, if not do it with care by hand.
11. To finish, cut through either end to remove the crusts from the cakes and square off.
12. If you fancy adding a Highgrove honey bee as shown, you can make a little ball with marzipan and add indentations for the eyes and mouth and paint with a tiny bit of cocoa powder mixed with water for the stripes. For the crown, roll some marzipan very thinly, make into a cylinder then trim the points with a small pair of scissors. Add some gold sparkle if you wish and sit on top of the cake to finish.