I discovered a lovely recipe for vegan Battenberg, so I made my own version and this is my Strawberries and Champagne Battenberg. It was so good. We’ve had ours with a glass of Champagne, of course. We were celebrating and this is why I thought of making this combination of flavours. The sponge was light and moist. I will make this kind of sponge quite often, as it is so good. I decorated my cake with edible flowers just because I grow my own and the plants have so many flowers this year. There are so many that I’ve put them in salads, not just on fancy desserts or cakes. I highly recommend growing your own edible flowers as they are so easy to grow and buying them is very expensive.

I made some modifications to the recipe shared by Hannah, as I used half of the sugar, as I’m not keen on desserts that are too sweet. Also, I’ve made marzipan, as I always do, because the shop bought one is too sweet. The marzipan available at the supermarket contains only 25% almonds, while the one I make at home contains over 66% almonds, so there is a significant difference in taste, as you can imagine. It takes a minute or two to make, so it is a much better alternative.
Make small balls from the leftover marzipan and coat them with melted chocolate for some chocolate bonbons. These could be lovely for decorating the Battenberg cake too.

Ingredients for Strawberries and Champagne Battenberg. 8 servings:

– 275g self-raising white flour
– 110g sugar
– 80g ground almonds (for the sponge)
– 1¼ tsp baking powder
– 150g margarine, melted
– 190ml soy milk
– strawberry flavouring
– Champagne flavouring
– red food colouring, gel
– golden syrup, for sticking the sponges
ingredients for the marzipan & decoration:
– 250g ground almonds
– 120g icing sugar
– edible flowers (optional)

Weight in the dry ingredients and mix them in a bowl. In another bowl, add the melted margarine and stir in the milk. Pour them over the dry ingredients and mix until all are incorporated. You can use a hand mixer to speed things up.

Put half of the cake batter in another bowl. If you use the same quantities like I did, half means 400g. Add the Champagne flavouring and mix. Add the strawberry flavouring and gel colouring and mix with a spoon.

Heat the oven to 180C or 160C for fan ovens.

Line a cake tin like I did, see the picture above. This means that you can bake both sponges in the same tin. Scoop the cake batter in the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until the sponges are baked.
Take the tin out of the oven and leave the sponges to cool for a few minutes. Transfer them on a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

Meanwhile make the marzipan by mixing the icing sugar with the almonds. Add 3-4 teaspoons of water. Start kneading the marzipan and add more water if is necessary. The marzipan is ready in a couple of minutes. Just remember that it is easier to add a bit more water than to add more sugar and almonds if the consistency is not right.

Make the battenberg by slicing the sponges in two long strips. Of course, the edges need to be cut before that. Stick a red sponge over an ivory one with some golden syrup. Apricot jam is usually used, but I didn’t have any, so I used golden syrup. Now stick the remaining ivory sponge over the red one. Put a bit of golden syrup on a side and stick all four strips of cake together. Roll out the marzipan on the workout. Use icing sugar so it doesn’t stick to the worktop. Put a bit of golden syrup on top of the cake. Cover the cake with marzipan. Do not overlap the marzipan as it will not look as neat. Cut the marzipan to size and using a bit of water and one of those special tools for marzipan, or just your finger, brush the sides of the marzipan until it looks neat.

You can now use a bit of water to stick the flowers on top of the cake. That’s it. The Strawberries and Champagne Battenberg is ready to be enjoyed.