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Keto Battenberg Cake

Writer's picture: Matthew CaruanaMatthew Caruana


I was going to call this "The infamous Keto Battenberg" and I'll tell you why....


I first posted this recipe on a Facebook group I ran back in 2020 during lockdown.

I was doing keto versions of the technical challenges of that year's Great British Bakeoff and the Battenberg came up so I did it. I adapted a recipe from my book Everyone Deserves Dessert for the sponge.

One of my friends on the group asked if she could use the recipe to do some live cook along teaching thingamajig on another Facebook group, and I said yes, but asked that she told everyone where the recipe came from.

Later she asked if it could appear in print on the company's website, which I agreed to with the same request that it was clear I had written it. The recipe appeared without proper credit and I was a bit hurt, but I got through it.

Later that year I saw that my friend and that Facebook group were publishing a book together, so I looked at the list of recipes and there was a Battenberg, so I texted my friend to find out of it was mine. Amazingly she tried to convince me that she'd never been using my recipe in the first place, which obviously wasn't possible.

I contacted the boss of the company my friend was working with. I wanted to believe it was an accident on his part and I thought the best thing to do was to sell him the IP and be done with it. Unfortunately he told me to sod off and I said I would have to take them to court.


Every so often I look for copyright lawyers that could help me take this to court, but the stress is not very fun. Unfortunately I've seen the boss of that company at keto events where he, his family and his staff have all been quite aggressive.


When that book came out, I stopped sharing recipes on Facebook and Instagram.

The whole experience was very bad for my mental health, and it still is. Now I'm trying to take some sort of emotional ownership of it by publishing it here.



 




 

The original Battenberg


Battenberg cakes, it's thought, were created to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. The cake’s distinctive checked pattern was said to symbolise the unity of the two families. Over time, the Battenberg cake has become a staple in British baking, synonymous with elegance and tradition.


Some people say it originally comes from Germany, which does make a lot of sense, considering the original constituent parts.


  • Sponge Cake.

  • Apricot Jam.

  • Marzipan.


Marzipan and Apricot jam are classic features of the patisserie of the Austro-Hungarian empire which massively influenced European cuisine and continues to do so, especially in neighbouring states like Germany.


I've swapped the apricot jam for a raspberry fluid gel and used an almond sponge to make it more keto friendly.



 

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The infamous Battenberg:



For each of the sponges:
50g butter, very soft
60g Truvia
1 whole egg
3 egg yolks
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp xanthan gum
3 egg whites @ stiff peaks
+food colouring - 1/8 tsp red in one and 1/4 tsp yellow in the other.

Cook in lined loaf tins for 30-35 minutes @ 165∘c

For the marzipan:
60g Truvia
2 egg yolks
60g water

Beat it all together, kneed until smooth. Wrap in cling film & refrigerate.

-------------------

Once the cakes are out of the oven, give them ten minutes to cool before turning them out.
Leave the cake to cool down fully.
Trim the cake down into four equal lengths.
Roll the marzipan out between two layers of cling film.
Brush the outside of the cakes with the fluid gel from Everyone Deserves Dessert, or another similar recipe or even a thin layer of soft butter.
Peel off one layer of cling film from the marzipan.
Place the cake on the middle of the marzipan.
Bring the marzipan up the sides of the cake to meet at the top and trim accordingly.
Smooth the join between the ends of the marzipan.
Add marzipan panels to the ends of the cake and smooth the joins.
Wrap in several layers of cling film and transfer to a tray.
Smooth the sides of battenburg with a palette knife or rolling pin.
Chill in the fridge for an hour before unwrapping and slicing.

 


 

That is my recipe from my Facebook post.

The original version I published gave directions for making one big sponge and dividing it. That is the version that appeared in someone else's book. She did add one egg white to the recipe though.


Last week I shared this recipe on another Facebook group, called something like "traditional British recipes" or something, with a brief explanation of the story.

There had been a dodgy post by a fake account, with a Battenberg recipe lifted from BBC goodfood and admins had published a little shpiel about copyright etc. so I thought I'd share my experience and my recipe.

Funnily enough it got me banned from the group.


The infamous keto Battenberg recipe continues to boggle my mind, so I thought I'd deploy it here, after a few years of ums and ahs.


🖤


Stay healthy

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