Prep time:

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Total time:

Serves: 6

175g Unsalted Butter

175g Golden Caster Sugar

3 Large Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Paste

175g Self Raising Flour

Pink Colouring Paste

4tbsp Raspberry Jam

350g Marzipan

Rosemary Shrager makes a Battenburg Cake which she recommends making with a special Battenberg Tin

  1. Cream the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, vanilla paste and flour until you have a smooth batter. Divide the batter exactly in half, and put into two bowls. In one bowl add a small amount of pink colouring paste, folding until completely combined.
  2. Divide the mixture between the sections of the tin – two sections per batter colour.
  3. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool and remove the cake pieces from the tin.
  4. Paint the jam over the long sides of the cake and put one of each side by side, then put the other two pieces on top, alternating the colour to achieve that classic chequerboard pattern. Paint the remaining long sides with the jam.
  5. In icing sugar, roll out 290g of the marzipan and wrap the cake completely. Put the cake seam-side-down to hide the rough edge. Trim the edges with a sharp knife dipped in hot water, weigh 6x10g balls of marzipan to place on top and then gently blowtorch.

  • words:
  • pictures: David Merewether

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