Battenberg Cake

1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line the base and sides of a 20cm square tin with baking parchment (crossing two 20cm strips over the base makes this simple).
2. For the almond sponge, put the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth. Scrape into the tin, spread to the corners, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
3. For the pink sponge, line the tin again and mix all the ingredients as before but leaving out the almond extract, folding in some pink food colouring. Scrape into the tin, bake as before, and cool.
4. To assemble, heat the jam until runny, then sieve it. Barely trim two opposite edges of the almond sponge and well-trim a third, then measure the sponge's height and, cutting from the well-trimmed edge, use a ruler to cut 4 slices each the same width as that height. Do the same with the pink cake.
5. Take 2 almond and 2 pink slices and trim them all to the same length. Roll one block of marzipan out on a surface dusted with icing sugar to just over 20cm wide and about 0.5cm thick.
6. Brush the marzipan with apricot jam, lay a pink and an almond slice side by side at one end (brushing jam between them to stick), leaving 4cm of marzipan clear at the end. Brush more jam on top and sit the remaining two slices on top, alternating the colours for the chequerboard, then trim the marzipan to the length of the cakes.
7. Lift the marzipan and smooth it over the cake with your hands, leaving a small fold along the bottom edge before you seal the first side. Trim the opposite side to match and crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork, marking slices on top with the fork if you like.
8. Make the second Battenberg the same way and store in an airtight box or well wrapped for up to 3 days.

Tips from the ZestyPlate Kitchen

• Cut the sponge strips to an even size. The chequerboard only reads cleanly if every piece matches.
• Brush jam on every surface that meets another, so the blocks bond and the marzipan sticks.
• Roll the marzipan out on icing sugar rather than flour. It stops it sticking and keeps it sweet.
• Fold a little marzipan along the bottom seam for a tidy, professional-looking join.