This month's Daring Baker's Challenge was Going Batty For The Jubilee. Mandy of What The Fruit Cake challenged the bakers to make a battenberg cake. Battenberg cake is traditionally flavoured with almonds and the four squares - two pink and two yellow represent the four princes of Battenberg. The strips are glued with apricot jam and covered with marzipan. The first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria's grand daughter to Prince Louis of Batterberg. When I read about the cake and saw the snap of the cake, I was very much interested in trying it out. To be frank, I struggled a lot before making this cake. The first time I tried the cake with almond meal and when I prepared an eggless version the cake crumbled. The next attempt was the sponge with condensed milk. I didn't know what went wrong but I got a dry cake. But I could prepare the strips. Then I made an eggless marzipan with almond meal. When I rolled it out, it started cracking. So when I wrapped the cake in marzipan, it was a total mess. But it tasted great. So I thought of skipping this challenge. But suddenly yesterday, I got some confidence and I set out to make the cake for the third time. This time I prepared two cakes-one a coconut cake and another a nutty rose cake. I used mixed fruit jam for gluing and candy clay to cover the cake. You can see the snap and know that I succeeded in my third attempt. It was very tasty. The cake was packed with a lot of flavours and it tasted great the next day.
Ingredients:
For The Coconut Cake:
Flour-1 1/4cups
Butter-1/2cup
Granulated Sugar-3/4cup
Baking Soda-1/2tsp
Baking Powder-1/2tsp
Unsweetened Coconut Powder-1cup
Yogurt/ Curd-1/2cup
Milk-1/2cup
Vanilla Essence-1tsp
For the Rose Chironji
Cake:
Flour-1 1/4cups
Butter-1/2cup
Granulated Sugar-3/4cup
Baking Soda-1/2tsp
Baking Powder-1tsp
Yogurt/ Curd-1/2cup
Milk-1/2cup
Rose Milk Essence-1/2tsp
Chironji Seeds-1/2cup
To Assemble The Cake:
Candy Clay/ Chocolate Plastique-300gm
Fruit Jam-1/2cup
Procedure:
Preparing Coconut
Cake:
- Preheat
oven to 175C.
- Mix
flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.
- Cream
butter and sugar in another bowl using a hand mixer.
- When
fluffy, add curd and beat until creamy.
- Add
milk and essence and mix well.
- With a
wooden spoon, mix the flour into the butter sugar mixture gently.
- Add
the coconut powder and mix.
- Grease
and dust a 7”
square cake tin with butter and flour.
- Pour
the batter into the tin.
- Place
the tin in the middle shelf and bake for 30-35minutes or until a tooth
pick inserted comes out clean.
- Place
on wire rack for 5 minutes.
- Invert
the cake onto the wire rack and allow it to cool.
Preparing the Rose
Chironji Cake:
1. Preheat
oven to 175C.
2. Mix
flour baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Cream
butter and sugar in another bowl using a hand mixer.
4. When
fluffy, add curd and beat until creamy.
5. Add
milk and essence and mix well.
6. With
a wooden spoon, mix the flour into the butter sugar mixture gently.
7. Add
a teaspoon of flour to the chironji seeds and mix weel to coat. Add this to the
cake batter and fold.
8. Grease
and dust a 7”
square cake tin with butter and flour.
9. Pour
the batter into the tin.
10. Place the
tin in the middle shelf and bake for 30-35minutes or until a tooth pick
inserted comes out clean.
11. Place on
wire rack for 5 minutes.
12. Invert the
cake onto the wire rack and allow it to cool.
Arranging The Cake:
1. From
each cake cut out two strips of equal width and height.
2. Heat
the jam until thin.
3. Apply
the jam on one side of the rose cake strip and join the coconut cake strip to
it.
4. Repeat
it to the other pair.
5. Now
apply jam on top of the first pair and place the other pair inverted on it so
that two identical strips lay opposite to each other.
6. Now
place the candy clay in between two cling wraps and roll it into thin rectangle
enough to cover the whole cake.
7. Remove
the top cling wrap.
8. Apply
jam in the middle and place the assembled cake on it.
9. Apply
jam to the remaining parts of the candy clay.
10. Gently
bring one side of the candy clay with the wrap over the cake.
11. Press to
glue them together.
12. Remove the
wrap partially.
13. Bring the
other end of the candy clay so that it wraps the entire cake.
14. Place it on
the first fold.
15. With a
knife trim out the excess candy clay at the joining point and smoothen the
joint.
16. Remove the
wrap from the second fold.
17. Fold the
clay on both the faces so that the cake is fully covered.
18. Place it
for 30minutes in refrigerator.
19. Now place
the cake seam side down on a serving plate and remove the cling wrap.
20. With a
blunt knife draw criss cross lines on top.
21. Now trim
both sides and remove excess candy clay and cake pieces.
22. Keep it
covered for 10-12hours.
23. Slice it
and serve.
Prepare two cakes.
Cut two identical strips in each cake
Join a pink cake with an yellow cake with jam.
Arrange the two strips so that they form a checker board pattern. Use jam to glue.
Roll out the candy clay between two cling wraps.
Apply jam in the centre and place the cake on it.
Apply jam to the remaining sides. Bring one side over the cake and slightly remove the wrap.
Bring the other side to the top and let it overlap the first side.
Fold the candy clay onto the cake at both the edges.
Remove the wrap from top and refrigerate.
Place seam side down on a cutting board and remove the wrap.
Trim both the edges.
Slice it and serve.
Labels: BAKES, CAKE, CHOCOLATES, COCONUT, DARING BAKER CHALLENGE, EGGLESS, ROSE, SNACKS, SWEETS