Battenberg (gluten & dairy free)

There’s something about Battenberg that means you either love it or hate it, and I’m definitely a lover! In fact, it used to be one of my absolute favourite cakes back in the days where I could eat gluten and dairy. It’s been a good 8 or so years since I had a slice of Battenberg, so I thought it was about time to attempt my own gluten and dairy free version! I always thought that Battenberg would be such a difficult cake to make, but in actual fact, it wasn’t half as bad as I thought (apart from the kind of tricky assembling part at the end) and I’m so happy with the final result and I hope you guys get the chance to make it, as it’s so delicious!

You will need:

180g dairy free spread (I used Pure dairy free)

180g caster sugar

130g gluten free self raising flour

50g ground almonds

1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

3 eggs

Pink (or red) food colouring gel

Apricot jam

400g marzipan

Icing sugar for rolling

20cm square baking tray

Baking paper

Rolling pin

Method: 

1.Start by pre heating your oven to 180 degrees °C.

2. Grease your baking tray with dairy free spread and cut out a square piece of baking paper which is double the size of your baking tray. You will need to fold the middle of the paper to give you a divide down the centre. This will prevent your 2 different mixtures from spreading (See image below).

3. Mix together your dairy free butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add your eggs, self raising flour, baking powder, vanilla extract, almond extract and ground almonds and mix until fully combined.

4. Split the mixture in half and place in 2 separate bowls. Add the pink food colouring gel to one of the bowls until you get your desired colour. I personally found that the food colouring liquid didn’t work very well so I went for a gel instead, which gave me more of a vibrant pink colour.

5. Tip both mixtures into separate sides of the baking tray and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes.

6. Once out the oven, transfer to a wire wrack and leave to completely cool before attempting to assemble the cake. If the cake is still warm, it will not work properly.

7. Once the cake is cool, put the 2 sponges on top of each other and cut the edges so that they are the exact same size. Cut down the middle of both sponges, lengthways, so that you have 4 equal sized pieces of sponge (2 pink and 2 yellow).

8. Roll out your marzipan using icing sugar so that it doesn’t stick to your surface. It should be around double the size of the cake and big enough to fit around the outside.

9. Assemble your cake into a checkerboard pattern by brushing the sides of the cake with apricot jam and sticking the cake together.

10. Brush the middle of your marzipan (the area the cake will sit) with more apricot jam as well as the outsides of your cake. Place the cake on the centre of the marzipan and wrap the cake, leaving the short edge open. You may need to trim your marzipan so that it fits the exact length of the cake.

11. Turn the cake over so that the marzipan binding is on the bottom and you cannot see it. Trim the short edges of the cake so you can see the vibrant colour and enjoy!

So there we have it, my gluten and dairy free Battenberg cake recipe! If you try the recipe, don’t forget to tag me in your photos, and if you have any other suggestions for which cake I should make next, drop me a message or leave a comment.

Alice x