Battenberg cake (or window cake) is a light sponge cake which, when cut in cross section, displays a distinctive two-by-two check pattern alternately coloured pink and yellow. The cake is covered in marzipan and, when sliced, the characteristic checks are exposed to view. These coloured sections are made by dying half of the cake mixture pink, and half yellow, then cutting each resultant sponge into two long, uniform cuboids, and joining them together with apricot jam, to form one cake. The origin of the name is not clear, but one theory claims that the cake was created in honour of the marriage in 1884 of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg, Battenberg being a town in modern Germany. The four squares of the cake are said to represent the four Battenberg princes (Prince Louis of Battenberg, Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, Prince Henry of Battenberg, and Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg).
See also
- Kek Lapis Sarawak similar oriental cakes
