This elegant tea cake, also known as “Battenberg/Battenburg Square” or “Battenberg/Battenburg Cake,” has a handcrafted marzipan filling.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 2 layer cake |
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 drops red food coloring
- 1 cup apricot preserves
- 2 cups ground almonds
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Cream butter and 1 cup sugar together. Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt gently. Add milk if needed.
- Divide batter into 2 equal parts. Add food coloring to 1 part to make a deep pink color. Grease two 7 inch square pans. Spread batters into pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let stand in pans 5 minutes. Turn out on racks to cool.
- Trim edges from both cakes. Cut each cake lengthwise into 4 strips as wide as the cake is thick. Trim to make strips match. Heat jam slightly. Spread on sides to glue 2 pink and 2 white strips together checkerboard fashion. Spread all 4 sides of completed cake with jam. Repeat with remaining pink and white stripes. Makes two cakes.
- To Make Almond Paste: Mix almonds, confectioners’ sugar, egg, lemon juice, and almond extract together. Knead until smooth, adding a bit of lemon juice or water if too dry to roll. Add only 1/2 teaspoon at a time. It will be stiff. Divide into 2 equal parts.
- Roll 1/2 of paste 1/8 inch or so thick on a surface lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Cut to fit length of cake, and long enough to cover 4 sides leaving ends uncovered. Lay cake on one end of paste. Wrap to completely enclose all 4 sides of cake pinching paste to seal. Roll in granulated sugar. Place with seal underneath on serving plate, or store in plastic bag. Repeat for second cake. Chill. Slice thinly to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 646 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 86 g |
| Cholesterol | 103 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 11 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 209 mg |
| Sugars | 59 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I first saw battenburg cake on a British show called “Royal Recipes” where chefs explore historic and current recipes enjoyed by European Royal families through history. This cake was on an episode about recipes for Teatime. I didn’t make my own marzipan this time, and what I had on hand was really dry and crumbly, so I had to add some water and try to work it through evenly. I destroyed my kitchen rolling out the marzipan on the counter with confectioner’s sugar, cutting the cake into right-sized batons to create the checkerboard (I don’t have two square pans the same size, so there was a lot of trimming), and spreading the apricot preserves with a pastry brush. The end result was worth it. The kitchen-destroyers usually are. 🙂
Made mine in a 12″ square adjustable pan, divided into thirds and just used 2 sections for these two sponges. Divided those into thirds and it came out great, following this recipe. Excellent marzipan recipe here also. I assumed the pink half of the cake would be tougher than the uncolored half becase of the food color that needed to be stirred in, but it was not detectable.
looks delish
It is simple but not easy lol. Never made a battenberg nor have I made marzipan soooo….. I am not totally embarrassed by my effort.
i love it
It was amazing!But I would say a bit to much marzipan.
Delicious and pretty cake! I didn’t make the homemade marzipan (bought some instead). Brought it to a tea party ??
I’ve Made numerous battenbergs, but this was the first time I used this recipe. It was heavy as a brick
Delicious!!! The recipe is very basic – you’ll have to add flavoring to taste. I also recommend doubling the recipe for the bake, the marzipan recipe is enough. Overall a great bake! Skin the almonds for a cleaner aesthetic.
I followed the recipe as written and it turned out great, if not a bit smaller than I was expecting. Made it for a coworkers birthday, who is from Sweden – she said if I hadn’t told her it was homemade she would have thought it was from Sweden direct.
Fantastic recipe. The Marzipan recipe it has in it is also the easiest and the best I’ve done. I often come back just for that!
It is so close to what I used to eat when my Mom bought it at the grocery store in Glasgow Scotland The marzipan should taste stronger that is why I gave a 4 but it is well worth it Thank you.
Fantastic. Tastes terrific, looks just as good.
I’m going to try this with some children. Any tips? Thanks, Lauren
okay this is absolutely biased because this is the only battenburg i’d ever tried. All my English friends loved it and it was really easy to make! Variation: Try flavouring the pink parts with strawberry essence and using strawberry jam! The result is amazing! YOu get a vanilla strawberry battenburg with delicious strawberry jame. Simply divine!
Nyum nyum nyum – absolutely delicious! Battenburg cake is my favourite. Virgilio Anderson
The cake itself is very tasty, however the icing is too sweet, beware. We took the icing off and ate the cake.
i made this with my sister today. the cake itself was nice but it doesn’t taste the same as Mr Kipling’s battenburg! I was a bit scared to attempt the marzipan so i just bought some. I would do it again though.
I am only 14 but my Mum was a successful cook and I have entered many shows and cook at least 3 new things a week, cooking is definitely my passion and takes a lot of my time. This cake was luscios to eat and positively made my mouth water at the first bite. It was extremely light and fluffy, it is probably the nicest Battanburg I have ever made. The downside is I would recommend it only to fairly experienced as it is quite difficult to make nicely. Although it is fairly easy to make it taste nice the presentation is quite hard to get to look good. It is quite fiddley to make the different colours nice and even. If you’ve never made a Battenburg beforre don’t be crestfallen if your first try looks a flop (mine was), it comes with practise.
This recipe was great! It tasted just like the mini-battenburgs I had at a tea in England. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
GREAT recipe – easy to make. Coming from England, now in Canada, this is very authentic – however, you must spread the apricot jam on the marzipan with a pastry brush before you wrap the cake in it – this helps it to stick to the cake and it also tastes delicious! Try it with raspberry jam too for an alternative. Also, the cake mix looks too stiff even with a little milk – but you need the cake to be firm and hold it’s shape – so don’t be fooled !!! The recipe is “spot on”. Excellent ******