Bat 'n' Burg Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

 

In my world, everyday is Halloween: I usually wear black with spiders and bats and spikes (gotta love a Goth stereotype), but when it's actual real-life calendar accurate Halloween, it's essentially my Christmas.

So, as my first offering of the Halloween season, I present to you this punderful delight: the Bat 'n' Burg! I think it's appropriate in two ways, as this is a delicious seasonal retelling of a traditional tea time classic, and also the name is a nice visual homage to Dr Frank 'n' Furter, who--for those of you in the know--is so fittingly seasonal. Credit to my lovely companion for coining the name of this delight...

Although this is a mini cake which would give a little slice to four people, a bigger version would be a delicious centre piece for any party table! Speaking of a bigger version, keep your eyes peeled for this Bat 'n' Burg's bigger brother in my upcoming Halloween video!

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DIFFICULTY

Requires cutting cake into layers,
shaping, and coating with marzipan

TIME

About 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Experienced

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INGREDIMENTS

For each 4 inch (10 centimetre) cake

2 ounces (55 grammes) white spelt flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar

1 medium (US Large) egg

1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) sunflower oil

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

A few drops almond essence

Green and orange food colouring

To decorate

6 or 8 ounces (170 to 225 grammes) white marzipan, bought or homemade

Purple and black paste food colouring

Raspberry or apricot jam, warmed

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FREE FROM

Dairy, nuts, wheat

CONTAINS

Spelt, eggs, refined sugar, almonds

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METHOD

First, bake the cakes.

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the bottom and sides, line the bottom of the tin with non-stick baking paper, and flour your 4 inch (10 centimetre) round deep cake tin.
• Separate the egg, put the whites into a mixing bowl, and mix the yolk with the oil in a jug.
• Whip the egg white, adding the sugar gradually, until you have a meringue that holds soft peaks. Mix in the vanilla, a few drops of almond essence, and orange food colouring. You want a nice shade of colour, but the colour will darken slightly after baking.
• Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add the milk, then fold gently until well blended, making sure not to knock out the air.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and tap a few times on the work surface. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the surface feels springy to the touch, and a cocktail stick poked into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before loosening from the sides of the tin and turning out onto the rack to cool completely.
• Wash the tin so you can grease, line, and flour it for the next cake. If you have two tins, you can cook both cakes together.
• Repeat the whole procedure for the second cake, this time colour it with the green colouring.

Next, decorate!

• Cut the domes off both cakes and cut evenly into two layers each: all layers should be very close in height.
• Using a 2½ (6 centimetre) inch and a 1½ (4 centimetre) inch cutter, cut each layer into concentric circles. Take the concentric circles apart, brush the insides with warm jam, and put them back together again with alternating colours.
• Take the best three layers, and sandwich them together in alternating colours, using the jam to join them. Brush the entire cake with jam.
• Dust the surface with icing sugar, and pinch off a tiny bit of white marzipan to use later. Knead purple colouring into the rest of the marzipan. Roll it out to about a quarter inch (5 millimetres) thick, and cover the cake completely and evenly. Cut off the excess.
• Knead some black colour into the remaining marzipan and roll it out again to the same thickness. Cut out two wings, two eyes, two heat shapes, and a smiley mouth. Stick a cocktail stick onto the wings and fix in place with some more marzipan. Fix some cocktail sticks onto the hearts, making sure the pointy end is pointing out, and then pinch the two rounded bits together to make ears. Leave everything to dry completely before assembly.
• Using the little bit of white marzipan, put shines on the eyes and make two little pointed teeth.
• Assemble the bat face, fixing the black marzipan on with water. Stick the wings and ears into the cake using the cocktail sticks.

STORAGE

This cake will keep for up to 10 days in an airtight container at room temperature, but is best enjoyed within a week of making.

Battenberg Birthday Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

As of today, my blog has 7000 views! I am super pleased, and a big thank you goes out to everyone who reads and makes use of my recipes. This is yet another thing to celebrate this weekend, as it was my companion's birthday yesterday, and also the big day out with my youth group. And celebrations need special cakes: say hello to the Battenberg Gateau!

Through a lot of surreptitious questioning and hinting, I discovered that my companion's favourite cake it Battenberg: a delicious rectangular loaf of almond flavoured sponge, arranged in a checkerboard of yellow and pink, apricot jam for gluing, and a marzipan coating, traditionally scored in a crosshatch pattern.

Now, mine was different in a few ways: a) because it is round and not a rectangular loaf, and b) because I used raspberry instead of apricot jam. It still used the traditional combination of natural and pink sponge with marzipan, but I held off on luminous yellow colouring for the marzipan.

So, let's start with the sponge itself. I made two 7 inch (18 centimeters) almond flavoured sponges in the same way I made the sponge for my Fondant Fancies; for each I used 3 medium eggs and scaling the rest of the ingredients up accordingly, and added ½ teaspoon of almond essence, and tainted one of the cakes pink with some red food colouring. I baked them each for 35 to 40 minutes at 170°C (325°F/Gas Mk.3); bigger cakes take more time on a lower setting.

This recipe makes a super light and fluffy cake, which is just like the cake found in a commercially made Battenbergs. You can, however, use which ever sponge cake recipe you like.

Once cooked, each cake was a little over 2 inches (5 centimetres) tall, and gave two 1 inch (2½ centimetre) slices, with the dome coming off the top. If you measure up from the bottom and then cut the slices, the dome will just be left behind. 

I then used the same concentric circles technique as I did for this checkerboard cake when arranging this, cutting each slice with a 4½ inch and a 2½ inch (12 centimetre and 6 centimetre) round cutter of some kind, or cut around bowls or glasses that are the same size. I used three layers in total, and as such I had a slice left over for nibbling.

I fused the concentric rings together with sieved raspberry jam, sandwiched all the three layers together with the sieved raspberry jam, and then spread jam around the outsides of the cake, too. I coated the cake with marzipan, which I rolled out to a quarter-inch (half centimetre) thickness, gently scoring the top with a crosshatch patter; I then used the excess to cut some decorative shapes.

You can buy marzipan from the shop is you like, or you can make your own, which is done by mixing equal quantities of ground almonds and icing sugar, bound with enough water to make a dough. To coat this cake, I used 3 ounces (85 grammes) each of ground almonds and icing sugar, but in hindsight, I think 4 ounces (115 grammes) of each would have made a better, thicker coating, as mine was just under quarter of an inch, as you can see in this picture.

This was really delicious, and I'm already considering making another one just for me to have at home, because the big one was demolished by the guests at our impromptu celebration for my companion's birthday.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Dairy

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) gateau

For the natural sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) almond essence

For the pink sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) almond essence
• A few drops of red food colouring

For the marzipan and assembly:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar
• About 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of water to bind, only more if necessary
• Few drops of almond essence
• Sieved raspberry or apricot jam, for assembly

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