Chocolate & Orange Battenberg Cake

When I make a Battenberg cake I usually I go for a coffee and walnut one: my favourite cake flavours! This time, though, I’ve gone for orange and dark chocolate.

Chocolate & orange battenberg

How to make and assemble:

The main recipe is as for my mocha and walnut Battenberg (the recipe link is  here), just altering the flavours of each sponge, as given below:

Sponges:

The sponges cannot just look colourful; they have to taste of what they are representing:

– the orange cake was flavoured with grated orange zest and a little natural orange oil. I used ust a little red and yellow food colouring to give an orange tint.

– the chocolate cake was flavoured with cocoa powder and finely chopped chunks of dark chocolate, which give little gooey nuggets of chocolate as you eat the cake.

Buttercream:

I used a orange buttercream, but went for subtlety in the orange flavour so that the flavour of orange is there but it doesn’t take over: to a standard buttercream (80g soft unsalted butter beaten well with 140g icing sugar), I incorporated a few tablespoons of fresh orange curd and a little grated orange zest.

Marzipan:

The marzipan was kneaded with a little orange powder and the finely grated zest of 2 large oranges to give an orange colour and flavour.

Chocolate and orange Battenberg

Author: Philip

Finalist on Britain’s Best Home Cook (BBC Television 2018). Published recipe writer with a love of growing fruit & veg, cooking, teaching and eating good food. View all posts by Philip