Wednesday, June 27, 2012

battenberg cake

Daring Bakers' reveal day kind of snuck up on me. Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.


I made this early in the month, and since I wasn't super pleased with the results, I had plans to adapt it to better suit our taste, but I just didn't get around to it.

So, for my Daring Bakers' submission, I made a pink and yellow Batterberg Cake. The yellow cake was flavored with lemon extract, and the pink, with framboise liquor and raspberry flavoring. I thought the cake was dry and the flavor pretty artificial, but that's to be expected, since I used artificial extracts to flavor it! As for the texture, when our host said we could probably make this cake without a stand mixer, for some reason I thought I could make it all with a bowl and a wooden spoon, and quickly discovered I have no clue how to make cake without a mixer... pretty sad!


I covered the cake with white fondant, on a super hot and humid day, so it turned out... the way it did! Not awesome.

Although my cake didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, I had a fun time making and assembling it, and I'm sure I'll use the technique again in the future. I also enjoyed reading about the adventures my fellow Daring Bakers had with chocolate plastic in the private forums! I'll have to try my hand at that some day too!

Thanks for the challenge Mandy!

11 comments:

  1. Doesn't look too bad to me. It has been fun reading the forums - lots of beautiful cakes - and a few covering disasters (mine included).

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  2. Looks fantastic - despite the weather not cooperating. For the record, the next time you find yourself with a surplus of heat and humidity, please feel free to send some to Scotland - it's cold and rainy here!!!!

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  3. Yum! Raspberry and lemon are so nice together. What a beautiful cake!

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  4. It sounds like we had some similar experiences with our cakes! I don't know about the flavor, but your cake is beautiful and so perfectly square! Mine turned out not so tasty and very dry as well. Just another reason to try again, yes?

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  5. I found the cake a bit dry on day one, but then (weirdly) it got better with age...! I love how dainty yours came out. Nice job!

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  6. Your Battenberg cake version is so cute!
    I also fell in love with the pink version
    Wtg

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  7. It looks like it came out beautifully - I may have to go back and make the traditional version some time

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  8. It's funny, reading your post vs. looking at your pictures... the cake looks beautiful, and the sponge actually looks pretty moist and delicious - if I hadn't read the post, I'd have thought it came out exactly as you'd hoped! :)

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  9. I agree with Shelly- your cake looks so moist and considering heat and humidity, your fondant looks pretty good. Heat and fondant are just natural enemies and will never be friends:(
    It looks beautiful though so you should give it another go come the fall! Best, Sandie

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