Daring Bakers June 2012- Battenberg Cake

The June 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy fromWhat the Fruitcake?!  . She chose to challenge everyone to make Battenberg Cake.  I never eat or make  battenberg cake before this challenge. Battenberg cake is a tasty  teatime treat that when cut in a cross section displays a wonderfully distinctive two-by-two check pattern of pink and yellow.  The dessert was made to celebrate the marriage between Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, and Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884.  
So, let  make some cake. The recipe itself is pretty simple . The interesting part comes in when you try to play with flavors . :)  I used lemon curd as a glue, fresh raspberry puree for coloring and chocolate plastic for wrapping. 
Recipe below is direct copy paste from Daring Baker's challenge. :)

Traditional Battenberg:

Servings: +- 8
Ingredients
¾ cup (1½ sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened & cut in cubes

¾ cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar

1¼ cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour

How to make your own self raising flour:

1 cup Self Raising Flour = 1 cup / 115g All Purpose Flour + 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder + ¼ tsp Salt (omit salt if there is salt in the recipe) sifted together

3 Large Eggs, room temp

½ cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice)

3/4 tsp / 3½ gm Baking Powder

½ tsp / 2½ ml Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp (1¼ ml) Almond Extract

Red Food Colouring, paste, liquid or gel ( I used 3 tbsp fresh raspberry puree )

To Finish
1/3 cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz Apricot Jam ( lemon curd in my case :) )
1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, natural or yellow  ( I used milk chocolate plastique and  If you plane to use chocolate plastique too , make it a day ahead )

Directions:




Milk Chocolate Plastique

200gm /7 oz Good Quality Milk Chocolate (+-50% Cocoa content)
3 Tbsp / 45ml /1½ oz Light Corn Syrup / Glucose Syrup / Golden Syrup

Directions:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir occasionally
2. Once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit
3. Stir in corn syrup / glucose syrup / golden syrup, it will seize up almost immediately, just keep stirring until mixed and it comes away from the side of the bowl
4. Transfer chocolate into a sealable bag, spread the chocolate out then seal the bag
5. Leave overnight or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm



Making and assembling a cake

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
- Tip: Watch video  for detailed instructions
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring
5. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
7. Add a few drops of red food liquid/gel/paste to the remaining batter, stir until the colour is thoroughly distributed, add more colour if needed
8. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
9. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
10. Bake for 25-30mins 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)
11. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
12. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
13. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
14. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
15. Gently heat lemon curd
 16. Brush warmed curd onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
17. Take  out chocolate plastique  from the bag and knead on a surface dusted with powdered sugar, at first it will just break , but as you knead, it will warm up and start to become pliable. Knead until it's pliable enough to roll out, 5 - 10mins.
Then roll the chocolate plastique in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
18. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
19. Place the cake on the chocolate plastique, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the chocolate plastique
20. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
21. Press the chocolate plastique  around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
22. 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
23. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess chocolate plastique by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern

 I love Daring Bakers challenges. Every month I learn something new. :)


Battenberg torta

Izazov u ovomsecnom krugu Daring  bakers-a je battenberg torta.Inace ova torta je nastala u cast kraljevskog vencanja princeze Viktorije i princa Luisa od Batenberga 1884 godine. Ova tortica se jako dobro slaze sa soljom caja.  Mendi,nasa ovomesecna domacica je od nas zahtevala da torta bude tradicionalno oblika u bar dve boje. Sto se tice ukusa pustila nas je da se igramo. Ja sam kao lepak koristila lemon curd, pire od svezih malina umesto crvene boje i cokoladnu plastiku umesto marcipana.
Pa da krenemo na recept
Ako cete kao ja koristiti cokoladnu plastiku za pokrivanje predlazem vam da je napravite dan ranije.
potrebno je :
200 gr mlecne cokolade (neke kvalitetnije sa bar 50% cocoa)
3 supene kasike kukuruznog sirupa.
Cokoladu otopite na laganoj vatri, pustite da se malo ohladi i dodajte kukuruzni sirup. Mesajte dok masa ne pocne da se odvaja od zidova posude. Stavite u kesicu , zavezite je i pustite da prenoci. Ako hocete odmah da je koristite mora bar dva sata da bude u frizideru.
Tortica:
175 gr omeksalog i iseckanog na kockice putera
175 gr samodizuceg (self-rise) brasna (  napravicete ga kuci ako  164 gr brasna promesate sa 9 gr praska za pecivo i 2 gr soli)
175 gr secera
3 veca jajeta
65 gr mlevenih badema
3/4 kafene kasike praska za pecivo
1/2 kafene kasicice vanilinog ekstrata
1/4 kafene kasicice bademovog ekstrata
za bojenje crvenog dela testa obicno se koristi par kapi crvene prehrambene boje ali ja sam koristila 3 kasike pirea od malina ( maline sam propasirala kroz sitno sito)
100 gr  lemon curd-a
cokoladna plastika za pokrivanje 
Prosejte brasno, prasak za pecivo, so pa promesajte sa mlevenim bademima. Puter i secer dobro umutite pa dodajtemesavinu brasna, sjedinite pa dodajte preostale vlazne ( jaja,bademov i vanilin ekstrat) i sve dobro umutite. Smesu podelitte u dva dela. U jednu dodajte pire od malina.Kvadratni pleh od 20 cm oblozite peko papirom i pregradite komadom savijene al folije ili peko paira. Najbolje pogledajte ovaj video  .
Pecite u zagrejanoj rerni na 180C 25 do 30 minuta. Izvaditi iz rerne, pustiti da se ohladi i obe tortice poravnajte nozem da budu pravilnog oblika. Od svake tortice napravite dve trake. Svaku traku sa dve unutrasnje strane   premazite zagrejanim lemon curd-om i slozite da dobijete saru kao na slici.
Cokoladnu plastiku izvadite iz kese i mesite. U pocetku ce biti sipkava ali ce vremenom postati kao plastelin. Posle nekih 5 do 10 min. :) Na podlozi posutom prahk secerom pomocu oklagije razvucite plastiku dovoljno dugacko da mozete da obmotate torticu Oblikujte plastiku nozem u pravilan pravougaonik. Pocetak plastike premazite lemon curd-om i na to mesto stavite torticu. Premazite torticu i sa ostale tri strane (leve,desne i odozgo ) i polako uvijte u plastik. Isecite visak plastika koj prelazi preko prednje i zadnje strane tortice , skuvajte caj, isecite krisku ili dve i uzivajte. :)