Battenberg Cake vs Île Flottante: Delicate French Floating Island

Both desserts lean on milk, vanilla, sugar and eggs, but put them to very different work. The Battenberg creams butter and sugar with whole eggs, a splash of milk and vanilla extract into springy sponges, which are glued with sieved apricot jam into a pink-and-plain checkerboard and wrapped in marzipan. The Île Flottante splits its eggs: yolks thicken vanilla-bean-infused milk into a chilled crème anglaise, while whites are whipped with sugar into airy baked meringue islands, finished with amber caramel and toasted flaked almonds.