Battenberg Cake

Steps

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan/gas 4) and line a 20 cm square tin with baking parchment.

2. 2

   Make the almond sponge: beat together the butter, caster sugar, self-raising flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract until smooth. Scrape into the tin and spread to the edges. Bake for 25–30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

3. 3

   Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you prepare the second sponge.

4. 4

   Prepare the pink sponge in the same way, omitting the almond extract and adding pink food colouring. Bake as before and cool.

5. 5

   Meanwhile, warm the apricot jam until runny and sieve if needed.

6. 6

   Trim opposite edges of the almond sponge to square, then trim a third edge. Cut four slices from the trimmed height to match. Repeat with the pink sponge.

7. 7

   Roll out marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar to just over 20 cm wide and about 0.5 cm thick.

8. 8

   Brush the marzipan with jam, lay a pink slice and an almond slice at one end, and repeat with the remaining slices to form a checkerboard. Fold and trim the marzipan to fit the cakes, then wrap the sponges and marzipan together, smoothing along the bottom edge.

9. 9

   Assemble the second Battenberg and store in an airtight box for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to a month.