Battenburg

Now, I've had a little bit of thing about Battenburgs soon after I first started to bake. I took it upon myself to attempt a Battenburg (as mentioned previously- I love precision and a challenge, as a novice, baking is a challenge within itself but I guess I wanted to push those boundries) So...my first Battenburg, I used a recipe I found on the internet, quite a complex recipe which ended up with copious amounts of cake (2 HUGE Battenburgs) I used pink colouring, with the recommended amount, when it came out of the oven you couldn't tell the difference between the squares, I was very disheartened as the whole point of the cake is the "window" effect. I went on to cover it in marzipan (my first attempt wrapping a cake in marzipan- very messy) and the cake tasted lovely, as I'd used almond essence in the "pink" sponge and lemon in the yellow. 


My 2nd attempt- over a year later, was Mary Berry's recipe for a Battenburg, and a success! Her recipe is easy to follow and doesn't allow it to be as difficult as it looks. It even looked like a Battenburg (and so it should since I had my ruler out measuring and cutting) and my marzipan rolling technique got better. I was very pleased with the result, an improvement on the last, and my next one can only get better!