As promised, here is the recipe I used to make the oh-so-yummy lemon and lime Battenberg cake as seen on Twitter and Facebook! It’s a slight twist on the original which I know is a firm favourite of many of you. This recipe is gluten free and the cake I made was actually dairy free too as I used dairy free spread (Vitalite) instead of butter. Gluten free flour is available in all supermarkets these days so if you are gluten free or know someone else who is why not make this as an extra special treat! Oh, and don’t be scared about the length of this article, most of it is telling you how to assemble the cake, the actual baking is the easy part.
If you do give this recipe a go make sure you let us know by tagging us on our Facebook page (Grassmoor Guest House) or on our Twitter page @GrassmoorBnB with a comment or photo. The cake is well worth the effort – honest!
Before I started making the cake I decided it was best to make the two sponge mixtures separately rather than making one large batch and splitting it before adding the food colouring. That’s why I’ve given you two lists of ingredients for the sponge. The homemade marzipan is worth the extra effort but if you really can’t be bothered then shop bought will work just as well (I just don’t think it tastes quite as good!).
Good luck and enjoy!
Rebecca
Ingredients – Yellow/Lemon sponge:
100g butter
75g caster sugar
2 eggs
130g gluten free plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Juice of 1 lemon
Ingredients – Green/Lime sponge:
100g butter
75g caster sugar
2 eggs
130g gluten free plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Juice of 1 lime
Green food colouring
Butter icing for assembly (butter and icing sugar)
Ingredients – Marzipan:
200g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp almond extract
½ tsp vanilla extract
Method – Marzipan:
1. Sift together the ground almonds, caster sugar and icing sugar into a large bowl. Stir to combine.
2. Add the egg white, vanilla extract and almond extract and stir together. You will need to use your hands to bring the ingredients together to form a paste.
3. Once it has all come together wrap in cling film and chill until required.
Method – Sponge:
1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line two 900g/2lb loaf tins.
2. For the Lemon sponge; cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
4. Stir in the juice of the lemon (don’t worry if the mix looks a bit curdled).
5. Add the flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
6. Pour the mixture into one of the prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and firm to the touch (do the skewer test just to make sure it is baked all the way through). Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, for the lime sponge follow steps 1-5 above but substitute the lemon juice for the lime juice and once the flour has been added and stirred through add a few drops of the green food colouring (you may want to add a lot depending on how green you want your sponge).
8. Bake as step 6 above.
Assembly:
1. Remove the marzipan from the fridge as it will need to come up to room temperature so you can roll it out.
2. Make sure the cake is completely cool before you begin assembly. Transfer the cooled cake to a suitable work surface, I usually use a bread board or similar.
3. Trim the sponges so you have four even oblongs of cake (two lemon, two lime). I usually trim off the outer layer of the cake to square it off then slice it straight down the middle lengthways. Be careful whilst trimming as the cake can be fragile.
4. Place the four oblongs together (so it looks like a traditional Battenberg) so you know how they will fit once you assemble the cake and to make sure they are even and sit well together.
5. Whip up a small amount of butter icing. Approximately 2 tablespoons of butter to 5 tablespoons of icing sugar, beat together until smooth and creamy (alter the proportions to personal taste).
6. Spread some of the butter icing on the inside edges of the sponge oblongs so they will stick together. Build the Battenberg so you have the traditional chequerboard style look, making sure you press down slightly on all sides to make sure the inside edges have stuck together with the butter cream.
7. Roll out the marzipan to a rectangle about 20x30cm in size on a large piece of clingfilm. Have the short side facing you on the work surface. Make sure you square off the edges of the marzipan so you have a neat rectangle in front of you, this will make it easier to roll.
8. Spread the rest of the butter icing thinly onto the marzipan rectangle.
9. Place the Battenberg sponge with its long side facing you onto the edge of the marzipan closest to you. Press down slight to ensure it has stuck into place.
10. Slowly lift up the cling film and roll the sponge away from you ensuring the marzipan goes with it. Press down slightly on each turn to make sure the sponge sticks to the marzipan. Repeat this a further two times so each side of the sponge is stuck to the marzipan and the cake is now covered. Trim off any excess marzipan as well as each end of the cake to give a nice smooth look.
11. The cake is now ready to eat!! Cut into slices and enjoy.