Square Love x 4

Well, square-ish. This plate full of coffee and walnut shaped yumminess was made by my youngest son for his Mum's birthday weekender.

I was very much the spectator in this stunning creation - my 12 yr old is turning out to be quite the young baking dude, and is quite fearless in his choice of recipe - I wouldn't have gone near anything so ambitious.

Anyhoo, while he was whisking and sieving away, I scuttled off to do my research. Seems we've accidentally baked a right Royal cake - the original Battenburg bun was baked in 1884 for the marriage of one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters (I think called Victoria too) who was marrying one Prince Louis of Battenburg. Somewhat bizarrely, each of the four squares represented one of the four Battenberg princes: Louis, Alexander, Henry and thingy-bob, the other one. Anyway, this gave us the turbo-charged, tie-dyed Victoria sponge-with-knobs-on that we are more used to seeing in it's rather vile mass-produced DayGlo Pink & Yellow glory.

Forget German Princes, or Mr Kipling, and forget the daft name, I've had a sneak preview of this beauty, and it tastes simply fantastic.