4th of July Battenberg Cake

June 27, 2012

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Battenberg cake is traditionally an almond flavored cake with yellow and pink squares (said to represent the four princes of Battenberg) glued together using apricot jam, the whole cake is covered in marzipan, and the top is patterned with a knife. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria, to husband Prince Louis of Battenberg.

I made a red, white and blue, 4th of July Battenberg Cake for this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge. I used blueberry jam to glue the blue strip and cherry jam to glue the red strip to the white almond cake strips. Since I’m not a fan of marzipan nor fondant, I opted to make a white chocolate plastique to wrap the cake in.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease. Lisa, Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives, was her baker in crime and had an amazing Battenberg lined up but came head to head with the Evil Lord Humidity, which unfortunately thwarted her arsenal of batter and marzipan.

I’m not sure I had just one Evil Lord when it came to this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge. One evil doer would certainly be high altitude. Mandy’s Battenberg cake rose beautifully, but unfortunately mine sank in the middle. I did make a couple of high altitude adjustments, but apparently not enough.

The second villain in my story was the weather. Utah’s been hot and dry. Not a drop of rain for weeks. Mandy warned the DBers about the chocolate plastique getting too soft in the humidity, but my plastique was so dry it cracked when I tried to wrap it around the cake.

I thought about taking it off and decorating it with buttercream, but the white chocolate was so tasty, I decide to serve it “as is.” I debated whether or not to post it, but decided it was a fun, tasty cake that deserved to be shared even if it was less than perfect.

Visit the Daring Kitchen for the Battenberg Cake recipe and tips, and to see all the fabulous and creative Battenberg cakes the Daring Bakers baked up this month.