Battenberg Cake

Chauffer 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)

To make the almond sponge, put the Beurre, Sucre, Farine, ground almonds, baking powder, Œufs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl

Battre with an electric Fouetter until the Mélanger comes together smoothly

Scrape into the tin, spreading to the corners, and Cuire au four for 25-30 mins – when you poke in a skewer, it should come out clean

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

For the pink sponge, line the tin as above

Mélanger all the ingredients together as above, but don’t Ajouter the almond extract

Incorporer délicatement in some pink food colouring

Then scrape it all into the tin and Cuire au four as before

To assemble, Chauffer the jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve

Barely trim two opposite edges from the almond sponge, then well trim a third edge

Roughly measure the height of the sponge, then cutting from the well-trimmed edge, use a ruler to help you Couper 4 slices each the same width as the sponge height

Discard or nibble leftover sponge

Repeat with pink cake.

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

Roll out one marzipan block on a surface lightly dusted with icing Sucre to just over 20cm wide, then keep rolling lengthways until the marzipan is roughly 0.5cm thick

Brush with apricot jam, then lay a pink and an almond Trancher side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing jam in between to stick sponges, and leaving 4cm clear marzipan at the end

Brush more jam on top of the sponges, then sandwich remaining 2 slices on top, alternating colours to give a checkerboard effect

Trim the marzipan to the length of the cakes.

Carefully lift up the marzipan and smooth over the cake with your hands, but leave a small marzipan Incorporer délicatement along the bottom edge before you stick it to the first side

Trim opposite side to match size of Incorporer délicatement, then crimp edges using fingers and thumb (or, more simply, press with prongs of fork)

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

Assemble second Battenberg and keep in an airtight box or well wrapped in cling film for up to 3 days

Can be frozen for up to a month.