Battenberg Cake

Prepare

1. 🥄Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line the base and sides of a 20cm square tin with baking parchment (the easiest way is to cross 2 x 20cm-long strips over the base).
2. 🔥To make the almond sponge, put the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl.
3. 🧂Beat with an electric whisk until the mix comes together smoothly.

Cook

1. 🔥Scrape into the tin, spreading to the corners, and bake for 25-30 mins – when you poke in a skewer, it should come out clean.

Steps

1. 🧂Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you make the second sponge.
2. 🍳For the pink sponge, line the tin as above.

Prepare

1. 🍳Mix all the ingredients together as above, but don’t add the almond extract.

Steps

1. 🫇Fold in some pink food colouring.

Cook

1. 🍽️Then scrape it all into the tin and bake as before.

Steps

1. 🌿Cool.
2. ✨To assemble, heat the jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve.
3. 🥄Barely trim two opposite edges from the almond sponge, then well trim a third edge.
4. 🔥Roughly measure the height of the sponge,

Prepare

1. ✨then cutting from the well-trimmed edge, use a ruler to help you cut 4 slices each the same width as the sponge height.

Steps

1. 🥄Discard or nibble leftover sponge.
2. 🔥Repeat with pink cake.

Prepare

1. 🔥Take 2 x almond slices and 2 x pink slices and trim so they are all the same length.

Steps

1. 🧂Roll out one marzipan block on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to just over 20cm wide,
2. 🍳then keep rolling lengthways until the marzipan is roughly 0.5cm thick.
3. 🫇Brush with apricot jam,

Prepare

1. 🍳then lay a pink and an almond slice side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing jam in between to stick sponges, and leaving 4cm clear marzipan at the end.
2. 🫇Brush more jam on top of the sponges, then sandwich remaining 2 slices on top, alternating colours to give a checkerboard effect.

Steps

1. 🫇Trim the marzipan to the length of the cakes.
2. 🍽️Carefully lift up the marzipan and smooth over the cake with your hands, but leave a small marzipan fold along the bottom edge before you stick it to the first side.
3. 🌿Trim opposite side to match size of fold, then crimp edges using fingers and thumb (or, more simply, press with prongs of fork).

Prepare

1. 🍽️If you like, mark the 10 slices using the prongs of a fork.

Steps

1. 🌿Assemble second Battenberg and keep in an airtight box or well wrapped in cling film for up to 3 days.
2. ✨Can be frozen for up to a month.