Battenberg Cake

Start cooking opens one step at a time with read-aloud and hands-free voice control — “next”, “repeat”, “how much salt”, “timer 10 minutes”.

1. 1Heat oven to 180C/160°C / 325°F 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. 2To make the almond sponge, put the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large mixing bowl.
3. 3WhiskBeat with an electric whisk until the mix comes together smoothly. Scrape into the tin, spreading to the corners, and bake in the oven for 25-30 mins – when you poke in a skewer, it should come out clean.
4. 4Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you make the second sponge.
5. 5For the pink sponge, line the tin as above. Mix all the ingredients together as above, but don’t add the almond extract. Fold in some pink food colouring. After that, scrape it all into the tin and bake as before. Cool.
6. 6To assemble, heat 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.
7. 7Roughly measure the height of the sponge, then cutting from the well-trimmed edge, use a ruler to help you cut 4 slices each the same width as the sponge height. Discard or nibble leftover sponge.
8. 8Repeat with pink cake.
9. 9Take 2 x almond slices and 2 x pink slices and trim so they are all the same length.
10. 10ShapeRoll out one marzipan block on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to just over 20cm wide, then keep rolling lengthways until the marzipan is roughly 0.5cm thick.
11. 11Brush with apricot jam, then lay a pink and an almond slice the side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing jam in between to stick sponges, and leaving 4cm clear marzipan at the end.
12. 12Brush 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.
13. 13Carefully 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.
14. 14Trim opposite side to match size of fold, 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.
15. 15AssembleAssemble 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.