Battenberg cake is a popular British cake that is often purchased instead of made in the UK. The cake is rumored to have been developed for the marriage of the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria, to Louis Alexander Mountbatten, also known as Prince Louis of Battenberg, Germany. In addition to being known for the cake named after him, Prince Louis’ daughter was mother to Prince Phillip, the consort (husband) of Queen Elizabeth II.

Princess Victoria and Prince Louis were married in the 1880s, but the Battenberg cake was first sold commercially in the early 20th century. It’s difficult to describe the Battenberg cake as anything other than pretty. It consists of four sections of sponge cake, two dyed pink and two yellow or white, which are put together in a checkered pattern. The cake layers are held together with apricot jelly or jam, and the whole cake is usually covered with either fondant or marzipan icing to hold the sections in place.

Battenberg cake is a popular dessert on St. George’s Day in England, yet this tradition is relatively recent. St. George’s Day for hundreds of years, as celebrated by the English, was nearly on par with Christmas. In recent years, although the holiday is still enjoyed, there is less enthusiasm for it. On the other hand, there is still Battenberg cake on St. George’s Day, always a reason to celebrate.

To the uninitiated in cake wisdom, the checked pattern of the Battenberg cake may seem a very difficult thing to make. Actually, the checkers are quite easy to accomplish. If you make your own Battenberg cake, you merely make two sponge cakes, one dyed pink and the other a yellow or white cake. These are then split down the middle, and stacked alternately on each other to produce the checks.

The difficulty in producing the layered and checked effect of the Battenberg cake is making sure that both layers of cake are of the same height. If they’re not, you’ll end up with uneven checks that don’t meet precisely in the middle. Since every cake rises just a little differently, this problem can be addressed by trimming the taller cake to the size of the shorter cake, in order to produce the uniform checkered pattern.

Because the cake body is relatively sweet, as is the jam, fondant is not the best choice for covering the Battenberg cake. To remain authentic, you should use marzipan. Its almond flavor complements the cake body and the apricot jam well.

It’s difficult to find Battenberg cake outside the UK. You may locate a cake or two in specialty or import grocery stores in large cities. If you really don’t feel up to the challenge of making your own, you can order cakes through numerous sites on the Internet.