Ingredients

– For the white chocolate sponge

• 75g Unsalted butter
• 50g Caster sugar
• 1 Large egg
• 75g White chocolate
• 60g Self-raising flour
• 40g Ground almonds
• 1tbsp Milk
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• ½tsp Baking powder

– For the spice sponge

• 75g Unsalted butter
• 50g Dark brown sugar
• 25g Caster sugar
• 1 Large egg
• 75g Self-raising flour
• ½tsp Baking powder
• 55ml Milk
• 1tsp Ginger
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• ½tsp Nutmeg
• ½tsp Clove

– For the battenberg

• 150-200g Marzipan
• 50ml Double cream
• 50g White chocolate

Battenberg Tin

13″ x 9″ Baking Tin

Method

1. Grease your cake tin.
2. Fold a piece of tinfoil into a sturdy-ish slab that is as tall and deep as your tin. The height will depend on your tin, but the length should be 9 inches.
3. Cut a piece of parchment paper that is 9 inches wide and 13 inches plus 4 times the height of your tin long. So, if your tin is 2 inches tall your parchment would be 21 inches long.
4. Fold your parchment in half horizontally. Hold your tinfoil barrier under the fold. Now Fit the barrier into the tin and fold the parchment to fit. The barrier should be in the very middle of the tin making two sections of 9″ X 6½”. (Alternatively, you can buy a battenberg tin)
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
6. Start by making the white chocolate sponge. In a large bowl, cream together your butter and caster sugar.
7. Add a tablespoon of the flour to the bowl and crack your egg in. Whisk until combined.
8. Add a tablespoon of milk and the vanilla extract and whisk.
9. Melt your white chocolate using the microwave in 30 second increments.
10. Pour the melted white chocolate into the bowl and whisk. Add your flour, baking powder and ground almonds and whisk until combined.
11. Pour this batter into one of the halves of the cake tin.
12. To make the spice cake sponge start by creaming together your butter, brown sugar and caster sugar.
13. To this add the egg and a tablespoon of the flour and whisk together.
14. Add the rest of the flour, baking powder and all of the spices and whisk.
15. Add the milk and whisk until combined.
16. Pour the batter into the other half of the cake tin.
17. Place the cakes into the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.
18. Make the white chocolate ganache to stick the sponges together. Heat the cream in the microwave and then add the white chocolate to it. Allow to sit for 5 minutes and then mix until you have a silky ganache.
19. Allow your cakes to cool completely.
20. Level your cakes to make sure they are flat, and they are both the same height.
21. Measure how tall your cakes are. Times this number by two. For each cake, cut the longer edges away until the width of the cake is the height times two. Now cut the two cakes in half, length wise. You should now have four long cakes that are square from the front and 9 inches long.
22. To assemble the cake, paint the chocolate ganache onto the long side of one of the pieces of white cake and stick this to the long side of one of the brown cakes. Do the same with the other piece of brown and white cake. Paint ganache onto the top of one of the pieces you have just made and place the other on top, making sure that the brown side is on top of the white. You should now have a cake that looks like a checkerboard from the front.
23. Roll out your marzipan so that it is about 3mm thick and is big enough to encase the whole battenberg (use your ruler to make sure of this).
24. Paint the rest of the ganache onto the marzipan.
25. Place your cake on the painted marzipan and roll up.
26. Place the seam at the bottom and trim off the two ends to make sure it’s all neat.
27. Decorate however you like.