Easy Battenberg cake recipe cooks in one tin using chef's 'nostalgic' recipe

The iconic coloured squares in Battenberg cake make it a distinguished tea time staple — one that is loved for its bold almond flavour and subtle vanilla undertone. Creating the unique chequered pattern involves baking yellow and pink almond sponge cakes separately, then cutting and combining the pieces, which are held together by a layer of marzipan.

It's a classic British cake many of us love to eat, but it's not an easy bake — unless of course you know about this simple recipe. Sharing his one-tin formula exclusively with Express.co.uk, Sodexo development chef Tom Allen said: "This was a cake my late grandmother used to make for a Sunday afternoon tea, and the taste of almond and marzipan is very nostalgic, taking me right back to those warm, comforting family gatherings. Tom's simplified approach means you can bake the sponges in a single tin, all at once.

The chef reminisced: "We also used to have scones with cream and jam, and malted fruit loaf with lashings of butter... it takes me straight back when I see and taste a Battenberg to this day!"

The cake is traditional to the core, which means the ingredients are easy to find in supermarkets, and you probably have some in your cupboard already.

All you need for equipment is a standard 20cm/8in cake tin and baking parchment, which is used to divide the two-toned sponges.

Battenberg cake recipe

Ingredients

175g softened butter, plus extra for greasing

175g golden caster sugar

Three free-range eggs

175g self-raising flour

Half tsp vanilla extract

Red food colouring paste

For the covering:

Six tbsp apricot jam

500g ready-made marzipan

2–3 tbsp icing sugar, for rolling

Method

First, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 then prepare a 20cm/8in square loose based cake tin with butter grease a 20cm/8in square, loose-based cake tin with butter.

Take a 30cm x 20cm/12in x 8in strip of baking parchment and make a 8cm/3in fold in the centre. This will create a division in the cake so that the two differently coloured sponges can be cooked at the same time.

Line the tin with the baking parchment, keeping the division firmly in the centre.

Add the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla to a food processor and pulse until well combined. Alternatively, combine everything in a large mixing bowl with a hand whisk, or use your arm strength to mix by hand.

Transfer the bowl of batter onto a set of scales, remove half of the batter and put it in a different bowl.

Add a small dab of red food colouring to one bowl and fold it into the batter until it is well blended.

Spoon the cake batter into each side of the prepared tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.

Bake the cake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for five minutes.

Slide a knife around the outside of each sponge and turn them out onto a wire rack. If the sponges have risen unevenly, press the surface gently until level and leave until completely cold.

To assemble the cake, first place one sponge on top of the other and trim off the crusty edges so they are both the same size. Carefully cut the sponges in half lengthways to make four long rectangles.

Warm the apricot jam in a saucepan, then press through a fine sieve.

Brush the long side of one sponge with jam and sandwich it together with a sponge of a contrasting colour. Do the same with the other two sponges.

Sandwich the two pairs of sponges together like a checkerboard and brush the top and sides with jam.

Place the marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar and roll into a rectangle of about 40cm x 20cm/16in x 10in; it should be large enough to wrap the cake completely, leaving the ends exposed, and be about 5mm/¼in thick.