Coconut Yogurt Battenberg Cake

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It is celebration time in London, first this month they celebrated Queen’s Royal Jubilee and next month they are going to celebrate Olympics 2012. This daring baker’s challenge by  Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! to make a Battenberg cake, which is almond flavored two colored sponge cake covered with marzipan. This cake was originally invented by the chefs of the British Royal household to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg.

When you cut open the cake you will see two different colors, traditional ones with pink representing princess and yellow for Prince.  When I looked at the challenge, same old thought came into mind, yes it is difficult and I am not going to make it. Then when I read the history of Battenberg cake here and here and watching video of famous cook Mary Berry recipe cooked by Mike in you tube, I got hooked, and decided to give it try. Recipe given in challenge contains self rising flour plus a lot of baking powder. I made sponge cake with yogurt and coconut cake with red and green colors. I am afraid of using uncooked egg in the marzipan, as it won’t be wise idea to give to my little princess. I used a cashew marzipan instead of traditional almond marzipan; in other words India’s famous Kaju katli. 

I told my hubby I am going to make cake; he thought okay I will be babysitting the kids. Then when I started baking he realized that it is going to a long business, poor guy. Even though he was a little irritated, he patiently looked after both kids. Looking after my boy is easy, he is happy to look at you and smile when you talk to him. But my daughter needs constant vigil, and you don’t what will happen in the next second. Lots of pulling, throwing and accidents will happen. 

First I made the cake, and then I made the marzipan akka kaju ki Katli. Assembled the cake in the night, and   thought I can take a better picture in morning. Next the morning when the sun came up, I decided to take picture.  I clicked several pictures, next moment want to take another angle and realized that one part of marzipan/covering of cake is gone. I asked hubby, I don’t know what happened to one side of cake covering, it is not there. May be I didn’t do it properly in night. Then my hubby told me, look at your daughter, she has taken it and eating the cover now. I turned back and looked at her. Yes she is eating. When I gave her the slice of cake also, she likes to eat the cover and not the cake. That means cake doesn’t have any appealing to her. 

I liked the cake; my hubby thought it is an overdose of sugar. However when his friend’s kids sampled it, told him that cake is good, but it needs more sugar. So if you want to make this cake increase sugar. I reduced the sugar.  I like the bite which coconut gives, if you don’t like it  use almond meal/flour. Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

Print recipe here 

 For cake

 All purpose flour: 1 ¼ cups

Sugar: ¾ cup

Butter: 2 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon for pan

Greek yogurt: 1 cup

Olive oil: ½ cup

Salt: ¼ teaspoon

Desiccated coconut: 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract: ½ teaspoon

Green food color: 8 drops

Red food color: 8 drops

For Glue

Pineapple jam: 1 tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon water

Eggless Cashew Marzipan : One Kaju Katli recipe follows

How I made

Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4.

Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil) .

Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside. In bowl of kitchen-aid stand mixer add, butter, sugar,  and beat well to mix together  then add egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract combine everything.

Then gradually add dry ingredients with wet ingredients and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter into two and add one red food color and other  add green food color and stir until colors is thoroughly mixed and color is distributed, add more color if need.

Spoon the red batter into the one half and other with green color batter of the prepared baking  pan.Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner.

(Make a  pan divider using  parchment paper and foil. First f old over a sheet of foil several times to help reinforce the divide. Then fold the parchment in half and put the foil into the crease. Butter the bottom of the cake pan, this will help "glue" the parchment to it. Make sure the divide is in the middle of the pan and stick the excess parchment onto the bottom.)

Bake for 35 minutes until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan).

 Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife.

Cut each colored sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge

Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible

Gently heat the pineapple jam and pass through a small sieve.

 Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one green next to one red. On top of that, one red next to one green) - Tip: See photos for detailed instructions

Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake

Brush the top of the cake with pineapple jam

Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down

- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan

Brush the remaining three sides with jam

 Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over

- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, It easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge.

Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate. 

Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.

Enjoy with the  tea.

Preparation time:

Preparation: 15-20mins

Baking & Cooling Time: 45-60mins

Assembly: 15-20mins

Yield:8 serving

Verdict: Taste good.

I am sending this cake to Alea and April's Gallery of Favorites