So if you follow me on Twitter you will know that I decided to enter the Weekly Bake Off challenge this week. The recipe chosen this week was Battenburg. This poses a bit of a problem for me as Greg is allergic to nuts so I can't use the marzipan. I need to make sure he can eat the cake as if I eat all by myself my waist will continue to grow!
I decided to get creative and reinvent the Battenburg. I wanted my two sponges to be lemon and lime. To wrap the cake I thought about using ready to roll icing with dessicated coconut added.
I was super scared about putting it together as I am not a neat baker and as you can see it has a little homemade wonkyness about it. I don't think it is as wonky further down.
Ingredients
175g/ 6oz butter or margarine softened
175g/6oz sugar
3 large eggs
175g/6oz sifted self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime
green food colouring
ready to roll icing
dessicated coconut
warmed apricot jam
Method
I decided to get creative and reinvent the Battenburg. I wanted my two sponges to be lemon and lime. To wrap the cake I thought about using ready to roll icing with dessicated coconut added.
I was super scared about putting it together as I am not a neat baker and as you can see it has a little homemade wonkyness about it. I don't think it is as wonky further down.
Ingredients
175g/ 6oz butter or margarine softened
175g/6oz sugar
3 large eggs
175g/6oz sifted self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime
green food colouring
ready to roll icing
dessicated coconut
warmed apricot jam
Method
- Line two cake tins
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy
- Add the eggs and a bit of flour
- Add the rest of the flour and baking powder
- Divide mixture into two bowls - measuring equal amounts (my scales ran out of battery here so I had to guess and I guessed wrong!)
- Add the zest of lemon to one bowl
- To the other half of the mixture add some green food colouring and the zest of a lime
- Add to the lined tins
- Bake until golden and firm. You can test to see if they are done with a skewer. If the skewer comes out clean they are done. Took about 35 mins to bake in my super fast oven.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes
- Take out of the tin and cook on a wire rack
- Leave until completely cool
- Meanwhile mix some dessicated coconut into the icing
- When cool cut each cake in half. Check sizes are even and adjust if necessary
- Arrange in a checkerboard pattern and stick together with the warmed apricot jam
- Roll out the icing and wrap around the cake again using the warmed jam to stick the icing to the cake
- Finish the top with a little more lime and lemon zest.
