Vegan Battenberg Cake – Pandan and Coconut

Vegan Battenberg + A Tricky Past

I often begin a recipe post by researching a little about the dish. I blame my food history nerdiness. An interest that, rather unfortunately, doesn’t extend outside of food. Or my history lessons in secondary school would have been a lot more interesting.

A Battenberg cake (interestingly not spelled Battenburg – an embarrassing mistake I have been making for the entire 4 years I have known of its existence) proved to be a little difficult to research. But, I will not bore you with my food-nerd-facts. If you, like me, enjoy finding out a little about how the cake we know and love came to be, this is a great article.

Pandan-modium

A Battenberg cake is traditionally made out of a plain sponge, half of the batter dyed a blushing pastel pink, and the other half left cream-coloured. It is assembled in a checkerboard-like formation before warm, gooey apricot jam is brushed over it, and the whole cake is enrobed in a layer of golden marzipan. It’s quintessentially British, and – like chocolate hobnobs and fondant fancies – is loved by all. And while I’m not one to question a good thing, I also wanted to take this British childhood favourite and inject a little of the flavours of my own childhood.

I made the inspired decision to fold pandan into half of the batter, and to add coconut flakes to the other half – turning this treat unapologetically green, and gloriously coconut-ty.

First – what is pandan? For someone who talks a lot of talk about coming from Singapore, I am ashamed to admit I have only written about it once on this blog. Pandan is a leaf that is, undoubtedly, one of the key flavours used in cooking in Southeast Asia. It is often compared to vanilla, but unlike its western counterpart, pandan is also used in a whole range of savoury dishes. The leaves are often pureed with a liquid and strained, to give a vividly green pandan juice. A juice which dyes anything it is added to almost-luminescent.

I have used pandan extract in my vegan Battenberg, which is much easier to find here in the UK. So pop into your nearest Asian store (or Amazon) and you might just find a little bottle of pandan extract sat on the shelves, beckoning with its fluorescent glow. It smells a little of coconut mixed with vanilla, with a sweet, herbaceous smell.

If you’re wondering why I dyed the coconut half of the batter pink, it is because it reminded me of the coconut candy squares I used to nibble on back home in Singapore. They were essentially dense chunks of coconut fudge, made with condensed milk and fluffy, shredded coconut, but were always a vibrant shade of green or – you guessed it – pink. I used a lot of beet powder since it fades a lot when baked. But you can also just use a drop or two of red food colouring.

Together, the coconut and pandan transformed this bake into something familiar and evocative, a flavour which endlessly ripples through my senses. You can, of course, leave the exotic flavours out and dye half pink – and make the classic Battenberg. But I must urge you to find some pandan extract, and try this beautifully perfumed Singaporean-spin on it.

PAN-demonium

Battenberg cakes have special pans, which, if you are a Battenberg enthusiast, you should definitely invest in. It makes baking this cake a hell of a lot easier. Your layers will be even, and your vegan Battenberg cake perfectly square.

I already own far too many pans for my own good. So I tried to DIY my own. I used a 9-inch square brownie pan, and cut a strip of foil and baking paper that was 9 inches by 16 inches. I brushed a thin layer of oil on the foil, then stuck the baking paper over it (using the oil like a glue to hold the two together). You then need to fold it in half, back on itself, so the baking paper is on the outside (giving you a 9′ by 8′ rectangle). Then fold the top edge, where the fold is, down about two inches away from the fold. Pick it up and smooth down the sides so you end up with a 2-inch high ‘wall’ of baking paper and foil in the middle of the sheet. Grease your pan and place your creation on it, pressing down, making sure the ‘wall’ is exactly in the middle of the pan. If you struggled to understand that as much as I struggled to explain it, watch Mary Berry do it.

In hindsight, the pan I used was a little too big and my cake was a little too flat, so if you have a 7′ or 8′ square pan, use that instead.

If all of this baking paper origami kerfuffle sounded arduous, there is another option – use two greased+lined bread pans. Simple.

Not a Piece Of Cake

So I decided to make life a little tough and make a 9-square Battenberg. You do not have to follow suit, and in fact, I highly advise you to stick to the classic 4-square design. Do as I say not as I do. I had apricot jam. Everywhere. 

And while this vegan Battenberg requires some assembly and TLC, I promise you that you will be rewarded (with delicious cake) for your efforts. Thin slivers of the cake can be eaten throughout the week, and if you have unexpected guests – they will not go hungry.

TLDR: Make this vegan Battenberg cake. It may get messy, you may end up with blobs of jam in your (freshly washed) hair. It may require patience and precision. But it’s 10000% worth it. Cut a (chunky) slice and let the floral, pastel-coloured cake tumble into your stomach. Yum town.

If you want to make a classic Battenberg, just follow this recipe, leaving put the pandan and coconut, but still dyeing half the batter pink.

Vegan Battenberg Cake

 

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Prep time

50 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 35 mins

 

A vegan Battenberg cake, with a tropical twist! With cake flavoured with pandan and coconut - this is a delightful spin on a classic springtime dessert.

Author: Sasha Gill

Serves: 8-12 slices

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted plain flour (350g) - sift before measuring!
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1½ cups plant milk
• 3 tbsp aquafaba
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp vanilla powder, or extract
• ½ tsp pandan extract
• 1 tbsp beet powder or 2 drops red food colouring
• 3 tbsp desiccated coconut
• ½ cup apricot jam, warmed
• 1 block golden marzipan (500g)
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C, and line and divide a 7-inch square brownie tray with foil and baking paper (link to a video above).
2. In a large bowl, add the sifted flour, sugar and baking powder. Mix well. Form a well in the centre and add in the milk, aquafaba, oil and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
3. Divide the batter into two. Add the pandan extract to one half and mix well. To the other half of the batter, mix in the beet powder or red food colouring, and coconut.
4. Pour each flavoured batter into each half of the prepared brownie tray. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into a middle of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let the cakes cool fully before removing from the pan and peeling the parchment and foil away.
6. Use a sharp serrated knife to divide each coloured cake rectangle into 2 (for a 4 cubed design) or 5 (for a 9 cubed design) strips. If you chose to make it with nine cubes, one stip will be spare, so you can eat that up!
7. Level each strip so they are about the same height and flat (remove and dome-shaped tops). This will help with assembly as they won't slip off each other!
8. Heat the jam until runny. Paint a pandan strip with apricot jam on the outside, and line a pink coconut strip beside it.
9. IF YOU ARE MAKING A 4 CUBED DESIGN - Paint apricot jam over the top of your two assembled strips, then paste on the remaining two stips of cake, this time placing a new pink strip on top of the green one, and the new green strip on top of the pink one.
10. IF YOU ARE MAKING A 9 CUBED DESIGN - A little trickier but still doable! All you need to do is to add another stip (pandan) beside the pink one, then paint the tops of all your assembled stips with jam, and continue to paste cake strips on top of this, making each stip a different colour from the one beneath it.
11. Dust a surface with icing sugar, and roll out your marzipan into a large rectangle which is large enough to wrap around your Battenberg cake. Paint the middle of the marzipan with some jam, and place the block of your assembled cake strips on top. Paint the whole cake with apricot jam, then wrap the marzipan around your cake, pressing down so the jam sticks the cake to the marzipan.
12. Use a knife to trim the ends of your cake off, so you end up with neat, exposed ends of cake through which you can see your cubed design!

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