Battenburg Cake

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

My kids can't get past the fact that we didn't have GPS.

On a food note, my favorite online chef ~ Chef John of Food Wishes ~ utilizes YouTube to teach his recipes. I still like a classic cookbook, for sure, but I really dig the "in person" feel of his videos. Instead of reading instructions and thinking, "Yuck. Too complicated." you watch him sort of casually move through the steps, and you're left thinking, "Huh. That really wasn't a big deal. I can do that." Which is what he was going for, I think.

I agree - often cooking videos, especially ones showing a complicated recipe when read can really prompt you to give it a go. Cooking shows in general have evolved so much from my childhood days of watching Julia Child to the current endless parade of chefs crafting all sorts of amazing dishes. Some simple, and other more complicated.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I love my cookbooks. That why I have so many. You tube is helpful. Guess I am just old-fashioned when it comes to written recipes.

I enjoy my cookbooks too! Though I do tend to favor those that have photographs, especially when it comes to desserts as you want to have some clue as to how it should look once it's finished. YouTube is most useful when you're curious how to pull something that sounds complicated off yourself. It'll either scare you out of attempting it or give you the confidence to try it out. There have been times when I've watching a cooking or baking show and thought while you make that look easy there is no way I have the skills for that!

 

[LoriAnn]

I love my cookbooks. That why I have so many. You tube is helpful. Guess I am just old-fashioned when it comes to written recipes.

I'm a sucker for a pretty cookbook still. I can lay in bed and read through one like a regular book, considering possible recipes or dreaming up a brunch menu.

 

[donna]

I read cookbooks all the time. Always checking ones out from the library. I like to get ones at library sales and antique shops. Usually I find some really nice ones.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I'm a sucker for a pretty cookbook still. I can lay in bed and read through one like a regular book, considering possible recipes or dreaming up a brunch menu.

Me too! I also love some cooking magazines. I thoroughly enjoy Tea Time Magazine, Bake and the Food Network Magazine.

 

[LoriAnn]

Me too! I also love some cooking magazines. I thoroughly enjoy Tea Time Magazine, Bake and the Food Network Magazine.

Yep, magazines are just as fun, and I've kept some issues with my cookbooks because I use a few of the recipes in them quite often. I treat them like mini cookbooks.

Ah, Tea Time. Such a gorgeous magazine. I cancelled my subscription because I knew I wasn't using it enough to justify the paper usage, but I kept some of my old issues and will page through them for ideas now and then. I open that darn magazine and suddenly want more tea related things. Even though the idea of me having a pretty afternoon tea all set up every day is not realistic, I start to dream of it and kid myself into thinking, "I can totally get into that habit!"

Tea Sirens, that's what they are! I don't need another teapot, more tea cups, and pretty sugar!

<---- Me if I had pretty sugar.

 

[donna]

I keep my magazines too. Several always have recipes. One that has older recipes is "The Kentucky Explorer Magazine".
. It always has section on food each month. I am now getting "Woman's Day" and "Country Living". They always have recipes each month. The "Kentucky Living" magazine I get has a section on food too. I have posted recipes from all of these.

 

[FarawayFriend]

@FarawayFriend, are you familiar with Battenburg Cake?

As usual I'm late to the party, but @Schwallanscher has answered it already. I also thought the cake would rather have been named Battenberg Cake if it should have something to do with the Battenbergs (or later Mountbattens). And indeed, it seems here it is named Battenberg Kuchen (sorry, I cannot post the picture):
http://www.fuersie.de/kochen/backrezepte/artikel/kuchen-mit-karomuster-battenberg-kuchen-rezept

The explanation that comes with the recipe in the above article says that the exact story of it's origin is unclear, but it is supposed that this cake was invented at the occasion of the wedding of the German Princess Viktoria and the English Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg in the year 1884. Design and ingredients were chosen to please the taste of Germans and Englishmen alike.

A cake made this small I believe has a French term for it which I cannot remember at this time

Do you think maybe of the term "Petit Fours"? Wikipedia says: A petit four is a small bite-sized confectionery or savoury appetizer. The name is French, petit four meaning "small oven"

Also, could the cake be named after the town of Battenburg, Germany? Perhaps our friends in Germany could solve this riddle for us? @Faraway Friend.

Well the combined forces of @Schwallanscher (who is a much more talented cook than me!) and me may have shed some light into this delicious checkered cream and pink darkness

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Yep, magazines are just as fun, and I've kept some issues with my cookbooks because I use a few of the recipes in them quite often. I treat them like mini cookbooks.

Ah, Tea Time. Such a gorgeous magazine. I cancelled my subscription because I knew I wasn't using it enough to justify the paper usage, but I kept some of my old issues and will page through them for ideas now and then. I open that darn magazine and suddenly want more tea related things. Even though the idea of me having a pretty afternoon tea all set up every day is not realistic, I start to dream of it and kid myself into thinking, "I can totally get into that habit!"

Tea Sirens, that's what they are! I don't need another teapot, more tea cups, and pretty sugar!

<---- Me if I had pretty sugar.

I still have mine since I convinced myself that I enjoy the informative tea related articles just as much as the recipes that I don't use frequently enough. Though I have found some uses for their sandwich recipes like for various forms of chicken salad and the like and adapted them to regular sized sandwiches for lunch!

LOL! LOVE pretty sugar cubes...I'm always tempted to buy them and use them on the rare occasions I have that kind of company over for tea, but feel I'd not let people use them - you can only look at them!

You want to make something pretty? Check these cookies out - how to in this link

 

[Waterloo50]

A traditional English Battenburg Cake

My family like to have Battenburg cake on a Sunday for tea, its a Brit thing.

 

[FarawayFriend]

My family like to have Battenburg cake on a Sunday for tea, its a Brit thing.

It's a Brit/German thing! See my post above, #48

 

[FarawayFriend]

You want to make something pretty? Check these cookies out - how to in this link

These would make the perfect diet cookies for me! Much too beautiful to just eat them up!!

 

[Schwallanscher]

These would make the perfect diet cookies for me! Much too beautiful to just eat them up!!

you'll eventually overcome that atypical inhibition - i'm quite sure of that

 

[FarawayFriend]

you'd eventually overcome that atypical inhibition - i'm quite sure of that

(sorry, kind of private funny "warfare")

 

[TracyM61]

A traditional English Battenburg Cake

These cakes are stunning. Have always wanted to make one.

 

[Deleted User CS]

As usual I'm late to the party, but @Schwallanscher has answered it already. I also thought the cake would rather have been named Battenberg Cake if it should have something to do with the Battenbergs (or later Mountbattens). And indeed, it seems here it is named Battenberg Kuchen (sorry, I cannot post the picture):
http://www.fuersie.de/kochen/backrezepte/artikel/kuchen-mit-karomuster-battenberg-kuchen-rezept

The explanation that comes with the recipe in the above article says that the exact story of it's origin is unclear, but it is supposed that this cake was invented at the occasion of the wedding of the German Princess Viktoria and the English Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg in the year 1884. Design and ingredients were chosen to please the taste of Germans and Englishmen alike.



Do you think maybe of the term "Petit Fours"? Wikipedia says: A petit four is a small bite-sized confectionery or savoury appetizer. The name is French, petit four meaning "small oven"



Well the combined forces of @Schwallanscher (who is a much more talented cook than me!) and me may have shed some light into this delicious checkered cream and pink darkness

FarawayFriend. Thank You very much for responding to my questions. I certainly appreciate it. Petit Fours is absolutely the word I could not think of. David.

 

[Waterloo50]

It's a Brit/German thing! See my post above, #48

So which bit of the cake was designed to please the German palate, I'm guessing marzipan.

 

[FarawayFriend]

FarawayFriend. Thank You very much for responding to my questions. I certainly appreciate it. Petit Fours is absolutely the word I could not think of. David.

You are very welcome, David!

 

[FarawayFriend]

So which bit of the cake was designed to please the German palate, I'm guessing marzipan.

Yeah, I guess so, too. Although not all here like it. I do, though.
(yes, I do like it, @Schwallanscher, I admit it... hehe ... maybe you're right, after all ... )

 

[Eleanor Rose]

I have only seen Battenburg cake served at formal high teas, the kind you make reservations for at our nicer hotels and tea rooms.

 

[Belle Montgomery]

Trivia rumor: Battenburg lace (an American lace) was first created when Queen Victoria of England named her son-in-law as the first Duke of Battenburg in the late 1800s.