Hazelnut Mocha Battenberg

I love the baking community on Twitter. The support, comments and suggestions from like minded people is fantastic. I have spent many hours looking at what has been baked, the flavours and designs and then being able to chat to these very talented people. One late evening conversation was all about Battenberg!
I had wanted to try a hazelnut mocha flavour combo for  while, but couldn't decide on the right kind of cake to use it in without being too unoriginal. I like to try new things! I'd never made a Battenberg before so decided to give it a go. With a tin ordered straight away I got to deciding how to do it.
As I wanted hazelnut to be the main nut flavour rather than almond, I wondered if there was a different version of marzipan I could buy with hazelnuts. The answer was yes, but only in Austria and  Germany! So I hunted for a recipe... I found one which sounded good as it was also vegan (normal marzipan uses egg whites). Ground hazelnuts were also needed; again another ingredient that has limited availability and high cost in the UK, so I decided just to grind my own. Advice I read warned to be careful grinding the nuts as, if blitzed for too long, they would release oil and go claggy. I was really pleased with the result. It is a lot more coarse then regular marzipan, but the taste worked so well with the mocha cake and buttercream.
Next time I try one, I may try cooking the cake sections in separate tins and cutting to size. Maybe I was just a little impatient with the one designed for the job!
Have a go and leave a comment letting me know what you think!

Hazelnut Mocha Battenberg

Ingredients

For the marzipan:

125g roasted hazelnuts

100g ground almonds

100ml water

300g caster sugar

1tbsp water

A sugar thermometer is really helpful here to get the syrup to the right temperature

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar

175g self-raising flour

3 medium eggs

Either 1 ½ tsp coffee powder mixed with a tsp of milk or 4-5 tsp fresh espresso cooled

2tsp cocoa powder mixed with 2 tsp milk

For the buttercream:

150g icing sugar

60g soft unsalted butter

Either 2tsp fresh espresso cooled or 1 ½ tsp coffee powder mixed with a tsp of milk

1 ½ tsp cocoa powder

Start by making the marzipan

1.     Put the hazelnuts into a food processor and blitz on a pulse setting until they are ground. Keep checking between pulses as you don’t want to oil from the nuts to come out

2.     Mix the hazelnuts with the almonds in a bowl

3.     Put the 100ml water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep the syrup simmering until it gets to 114 degrees, or the soft ball stage.

4.     Pour the syrup onto the nuts and beat in a machine bowl with a paddle or by hand for a few minutes until it comes together. You may need to use the tablespoon of water to make sure it all comes together.

5.     Roll the marzipan into a log, wrap in cling film and chill. It will stay malleable in the fridge for at least a week.

Next make the cake

1.     Pre-heat the oven to 160/ Gas Mark 3

2.     I used a Battenberg tin from Alan Silverwood . It was worth taking the time to grease and line each section with foil backed parchment paper. If you don’t have a tin like this, cook each flavour in a 20cm x 20cm square tin separated with a pleat of foil in the middle. You will just need to make sure that you cut the slices so they are the same size and shape.

3.      Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy

4.     Add the eggs one at a time until they are well incorporated

5.     Fold in the flour

6.     Take half of the mixture and put it into another bowl

7.     In one, add the coffee and gently fold in.

8.     In the other, add the cocoa powder

9.     Fill either 2 sections of the battenberg tin with the coffee mixture and the other two with chocolate or opposite sides of the square tin with each mix

10.  Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean

11.  Cool the sponges in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove to cool completely

Make the buttercream

1.     Mix all of the ingredients together until they are a creamy and soft, but not wet mixture

Assembly

1.     Roll out the marzipan to around 5mm thick in a rectangular shape which is the length of the four sides of the Battenberg plus a little bit for the join

2.     Trim the cake slices so they are all the same height and width

3.     Use the buttercream to join a coffee and a chocolate length together.

4.     Put another thin layer of the buttercream on top and put a chocolate on top of a coffee.

5.     Use a layer of the cream to join the remaining slice to the cuboid

6.     Use a palate knife to put a thin layer of the butter cream on the three visible sides of the cake

7.     Fold the marzipan around the cake and before you get to the covering the final side, paste it with the buttercream

8.     Turn the finished cake so that the join is on the underside.

9.     Trim the ends to give a clean finish

10.  Wrap the cake in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes to set