Teatime Sweets Recipes

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

Henry Fielding: English Novelist

The third and final course in an afternoon tea service is the pièce de résistance of the menu. Sometimes simply called the “sweets” course, the selection of cookies, cakes, pastries, and tarts is anything but simple, with luxurious French pastries generally making an appearance alongside more traditional sweets like shortbreads, Swiss rolls, charlottes, cupcakes, meringues, mousses, and cakes like Battenberg Cake, a light marzipan-covered sponge cake that’s made distinctive by its pink and white checkerboard design.

Battenberg Cake

Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup milk
2 to 3 drops red food coloring
1/2 cup apricot jam, heated
One 7-ounce package Marzipan

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 ° F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking oil spray with flour. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour, baking powder, almond extract, and milk.

Cut a piece of cardboard to a 2- by- 7-inch length and wrap it with aluminum foil (to serve as a barrier between the two colors). Spread half the batter into one side of the prepared pan. Add the food coloring to the other half of the batter, and stir until it’s a deep pink color. Transfer the pink batter to the other half of the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely and remove the barrier.

Cut each piece of the cake in half lengthwise. Trim crusts from sides, ends, and tops of cakes to make evenly shaped loaves that measure about 6 1/2-by-1 1/2-inches. You will have some cake leftover from each loaf for nibbling. Place one white and one pink strip side-by-side on a flat surface and spread the tops and center with the apricot preserves to “glue” the pieces together. Repeat with remaining pink and white strips to create a checkerboard effect and spread with the preserves to adhere the pieces. Spread the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the jam.

Knead the marzipan with your hands to soften. Sprinkle both sides of marzipan with confectioners’ sugar and roll between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a 12-by 6-inch rectangle. Bring the marzipan up over the sides of the cake so edges meet at top, covering long sides but not the ends. Trim and crimp the seam and turn cake over. With a serrated knife, trim marzipan at the ends to make even. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Let cake stand, covered, for several hours or overnight. Serves 8