Daring Bakers' Challenge: Battenburg Cake

On to my second Daring Bakers' Challenge!  Ok, ok....I know it's been a month since I last posted, and I'm sorry.  I've been busy, what can I say?  Also, I know this post is a day late for the challenge....and again, I'mreallysorry.  Forgive and forget?  <whew>  Ok, good.  I'm glad that's not hanging between us anymore.

So, this month's challenge (pretend it's still June) was Battenburg Cake, which is something I had never heard of.  At first, I was a little daunted by the challenge, thinking back to those checkerboard cakes that were so popular in the 90's, but after reading through the instructions, I thought the best approach would be to jump in with both feet.

The variations on Battenburg cake are seemingly endless.  You can do just about anything!  Which, also makes it harder to narrow the choices down.  With the upcoming 4th of July holiday approaching though, I wanted to do something red and blue, with the outer white(ish) marzipan.  Very festive, I thought.  I started with the basic recipe that was given on the Daring Bakers' website.

Battenburg Cake
Adapted slightly from Mary Berry's "Baking Bible"

I added chopped fresh cherries to the red batter (with some red coloring), and chopped fresh blueberries (with some blue coloring) to the blue.  I had hoped that the fruit would color the batter enough not to use artificial colorings, but no luck.  Oh well.

Making the cakes was pretty easy. I used a strawberry/blackberry jam that I had made earlier this month to hold them together.  What I found the most difficult, was the marzipan.  I've never worked with it before, and found it a little dry. Let's just say, I did the best I could.  =)

Anyway, this month's challenge probably isn't something I'd do again.  At least, not until I get a little more experience with marzipan, but it was fun to do once.

Hope you enjoy!