Foodies rejoice – The Great British Bake Off makes its long-awaited return this week, with 12 hopefuls aiming to showcase their skills in order to be crowned the UK’s best amateur baker.
Each week, there’s a different theme that the bakers must honour, whipping up delicious treats for judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith to enjoy.
Week one is all about the cakes, with the contestants being challenged to whip up mini Battenberg loaves – a classic British treat that has been a teatime staple for years.
And if you want to whip up your own to enjoy whilst you tune into the show, you might be surprised at how easy they are to make.
The ‘easiest ever’ recipe was created by BBC Good Food and involves a light and fluffy dual-coloured sponge all wrapped up in a delicious marzipan coating.
This classic chequerboard cake may look complicated to make, but is actually a lot more straightfoward than you’d expect.
Taking 30 minutes to bake, it’s the perfect sweet snack for preparing ahead of The Great British Bake Off’s return tonight.
Here’s everything that you need to make this recipe, which serves eight. Before you start, you’ll need a 20cm square cake tin or a Battenberg tin and some baking foil to help you divide up the different colours of sponge.
‘Easiest ever’ Battenberg cake
Ingredients – for the cake
- 175g really soft butter
- 175g golden caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 50g ground almond
- 140g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp almond extract
- pink food colouring
For decorating
- 100g apricot jam
- icing sugar, for dusting
- 500g pack white marzipan
Method
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Using a double layer of foil, make a barrier down the center of a 20cm square or Battenberg tin, then line each compartment with two sheets of baking parchment.
Put all the cake ingredients except the food colouring in a large mixing bowl and blend with an electric hand whisk until smooth.
Tip half the cake mixture into one side of the tin, then mix the food colouring into the remaining cake mixture.
When you have a smooth and vivid pink colour, scrape this mixture into the other side of the tin, then spread both mixtures to the edges of their sections.
Bake for 25-30 mins until a skewer comes out clean, then leave to cool for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Once cool, put the cakes on a chopping board and trim the sides of each one until you’ve got a straight edge. Cut each one in half lengthways to give you two pink and two plain rectangular sponges.
Heat the apricot jam in a small pan or the microwave, then sieve it. Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar, then roll out a quarter of the marzipan to a rectangle roughly 20 x 10cm.
Brush the surface with the warm apricot jam, then place one plain sponge and one pink sponge side by side on top, brushing the middle of the cakes with a little jam to stick them together.
Brush the top of the cakes with more jam, then place the remaining sponges on top, with more jam in between, in a chequerboard pattern.
Roll out the remaining marzipan to a rectangle roughly 20 x 25cm.
Brush any remaining jam over the outside of the assembled cake. Using a rolling pin to help, lift the marzipan over the cake, smoothing it over the top and sides, and pressing gently into the corners.
Trim any excess marzipan about 1cm from the sides of the cake, and trim a thin slice off either end to neaten.
To finish, crimp the marzipan around the base by pinching with your finger and thumb.
