Sorry about my extended absence, and I won't be back for very long as I'm disappearing for another week very soon... BUT on the plus side all my exams are over so I am back home with a fully functional kitchen, and I have literally just passed my motorcycle CBT so now, when I need ingredients, I can go and get them myself! For the same reason, however, this, my first post back, will not be very long (I'm knackered and have already fallen down the stairs and I need to cook dinner before going back out on the bike). However, here's a flavour of what is to come this summer:
- Sourdough Herman Cake
- Rocky Road
- Baked Alaska
- Zebra Cake
- Donuts
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- 3 Fruit Ginger Marmalade
- Beetroot Brownies
- Lots of Chinese Cookery (anyone else been watching Gok Wan on channel 5?)
- Golden Wedding Anniversary 3 Tier Cake (Hopefully!!!!)
Anyway, onto this months daring bakers challenge. I got back from Uni a few days ago, then was straight down to my boyfriend's house for the weekend, so in total I had one free day where I could actually make this cake - but after missing last month's challenge I was desperate to do this one, so made an effort. I can tell I'm out of practice, but at the same time, it was so nice to be back in the kitchen. Battenburg has been on my list for a while so I was very happy when I saw it was the challenge for the month; however, Dad doesn't like Marzipan and I actually saw the Mary Berry Coffee and Walnut Battenburg recipe before this challenge came up, so when it was suggested as a variation, with corrected quantities, I jumped at the chance. Coffee and walnut is the standard flavour when visiting my Mum's parents, so it was taken to them and I'm happy to report, enjoyed!
Now for why it was called the wonkenburg. This is why.
PICS TO FOLLOW
It's a "WONKy battENBURG", see?
I learned a lot from making this but in future I'd just be inclined to make this mixture into an amazing marble cake unless I had a battenburg tin. I found it very difficult to trim it without breaking it so in the end I didn't trim the tops to level it out, hence why it ended up with the lopsided appearance. Oh well, it still tasted good.
Um, and I was a bit short on royal icing. I made it into coffee by kneading some very strong coffee into it, like we do with food colouring, but this did make it rather sticky and there wasn't quite enough to roll it out well anyway. I hate royal icing at the best of times, but this cake was so delicate it was a bit of a mare. Overall, though, tasty, and the firm covering really does make a battenburg.
The recipe can be found here. Thanks to our hosts for taking the effort to fix the Mary Berry recipe quantities, it DEFINITELY needed doing. Thanks for a great challenge overall, actually!
Hopefully I'll be putting up the ginger marmalade recipe before I disappear to York, so see you then!
