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 Being quite busy with the two boys at the moment my posts have become like the London buses, you wait forever for one, then two come along at once!

 I absolutely LOVE a battenberg cake. Having only ever sampled the Mr Kipling variety I found this recipe and thought I would give it a go and see how authentic the flavour would be. Obviously it looks nothing like a real battenberg but looks aren’t everything are they?

 Almost Battenberg Cake from Prima magazine

  • 8 oz self raising flour
  • 8 oz caster sugar
  • 4 oz butter, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 fl oz milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • few drops red food colouring

Frosting;

  • 3 oz butter, at room temperature
  • 4 oz icing sugar
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 9 oz marzipan
  • 4 tbsp raspberry jam

You will need; 2 x 8 inch round loose bottomed cake tins, greased and lined.

  1. Preheat oven to 180 c. In a bowl sieve the flour and caster sugar then add the butter and rub in with your fingertips till it resembles ground almonds. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture and mix till smooth.
  2. Separate the mixture into two bowls and add red food colour to one until you get a deep pink colour. Alternate spoonfuls of each into each of the cake tins. Drag a spoon through to spiral the colours together. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, til springy to touch. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  3. Frosting; using an electric hand whisk or food processor mix butter, icing sugar, and lemon juice until light. Coarsely grate the marzipan and add to the frosting. Whisk again for about 3 minutes until smooth, you may need to add 1-2 tbsp water to achieve a spreadable consistency.
  4. Spread one cake with a 1/4 of the marzipan frosting then with the jam. Place the other cake on top and spread the rest of the frosting over.

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 I really enjoyed this cake, I wasn’t convinced the colours would be as deep once cooked but it looked lovely. This is quite a sweet cake though, I am not sure it was wise of me to have eaten such a large slice in one go, but it was enjoyable so I have no regrets ;-)

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