Harlequin Cake

[echokilo]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for old fashion (early 1960s) Harlequin Cake please?

[woofgang]

there are two ways of doing it. (I was around in the sixties lol still think its amusing when its called "old fashioned like the victorian era) Anyway you make up enough victoria sponge mix to fill two sponge tins. If you want a chocolate and vanilla harlequin then make half the mixture according to any basic chocolate sponge recipe, this usually means having a certain amount of cocoa in the mix and less flour. If you just want it two colours then make one big batch of batter and divide it in half. lets call the colours pink and yellow.
Colour the batter, mixing in the colouring well but gently and add flavouring if you wish.
Method one. Using a dessert spoon but neat blobs of alternate coloured batter around the edge of each greased and lined tin. When you do the next row in, put slightly smaller blobs of batter and ensure that a pink blob goes against a yellow blob and vice versa so you get a nice chequered pattern. Do both cake tins in the same way and bake according to your recipe. When the cakes are cooked and cool, make up two lots of buttercream or frosting in the same colours. Blob the frosting onto the bottom layer of the cake, blobbing pink frosting onto the yellow bits and vice versa. Put the top layer on, rotating it slightly so yellow cake goes over pink frosting blob.
Decorate the top, et voila.

[tamborine]

http://www.flickr.com...harlequin+cake&m=text

[woofgang]

Method two gives a neater effect but you need the right sized cutters or a sharp knife and a steady hand, also some sieved apricot jam.
This time you don't mix the batters in the pans but bake two separate layers, a pink one and a yellow one. allow them to cool thoroughly then carefully cut a circle out of each cake about a third of the radius of the cake and with the same central point...like a bullseye. DO not cut through the edge of the cake. Very carefully separate each layer into its 3 parts (edge, inner ring centre cylinder) Do this for both layers. brush the cut faces of each piece of cake with the warm sieved jam and carefully reassemble, exchanging bits so one layer is now yellow pink yellow reading from the centre and the other layer is pink yellow pink. Are you still with me?
Now sandwich the two layers together with frosting or buttercream and decorate.

[echokilo]

Thanks everyone - sounds complicated!!!

[woofgang]

its a bit easier to make a square one...you just cut each layer into strips and reassemble alternate colours