Lemon and Ginger Battenberg Recipe
Ingredients
150g self-raising flour
150g soft butter
150g caster sugar
3 large eggs
25g ground almonds
Zest of two lemons
1 tsp ground ginger
100g lemon curd or ginger jam (personal preference)
500g marzipan
Equipment
Large mixing bowl
2 smaller bowls for dividing the mixture
Spoon or spatula for mixing
20cm square baking tin
Parchment paper
Cooling rack
Sharp knife
Baking brush
Method
Preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Grease your cake tin with butter. Line the tin with baking parchment. You will also need to create a divider with baking parchment to separate the two sponges while they bake.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs into the mixture one at time. Add a spoonful of flour with each egg to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Fold in the remaining flour and the ground almonds. Be gentle to ensure you keep air in the mixture.
Divide the mixture evenly between two bowls. Add the lemon zest to one and the ground ginger to the other. Mix well to ensure even distribution of flavour – again go gently to avoid knocking out the air.
Spoon the two mixtures into each half of the pre-prepared baking tin and smooth the top out with the back of your spoon or a spatula.
Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes – test your sponges with a skewer until it comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and set the tin aside to cool for 5 minutes.
Turn out the sponges onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cold.
Trim the edges of the sponges with a sharp knife so they are equal and even then cut each sponge LENGTHWAYS so you have four long rectangular sponges.
Warm the curd/jam slightly then brush each of the long sides of the four sponges with the curd/jam.
Roll out the marzipan on a clean dry surface dusted with icing sugar. You want to aim for a square around 40cm x 20cm and a thickness of 5mm. Remember it needs to cover all four squares of the sponge, leaving the ends exposed.
Place one lemon and one ginger sponge strip side by side in the centre of the marzipan, using the curd/jam to stick them together. Brush the top of both sponges with more curd/jam then place the other two sponges on top, ensuring you place the opposite flavours on top of each other so you create the traditional checker-board squares design. Brush the top with the remaining curd/jam. All four sides of the sponges and the centre joins should now be covered but each end of the sponges should be bare.
Wrap the marzipan firmly around the sponges until they are completely covered on the top, bottom and sides – again the ends should be left bare. When you are finished, turn the seam edge so it faces down. Trim any excess marzipan and tidy up the ends as necessary.
Dust with icing sugar when ready to serve.