BEFORE USE: Wash in hot soapy water, rinse and dry.

Ingredients

175g (6ozs) butter or margarine; 175g (6ozs) caster sugar; 3 eggs; 175g (6ozs) Self raising flour; Few drops of pink colouring; 3 tbs apricot jam (sieved); 350g (12ozs) marzipan; Caster sugar for dusting

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (350 F) Gas mark 4. Assemble, grease and flour the Battenberg pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Gradually add the beaten eggs.

Fold in the flour. Divide the mixture into two equal halves.

Put a few drops of pink food colouring into one half of the mixture and gently mix until an even colour is achieved.

Spoon the pink mixture into two sections of the tin, and the plain mixture into the other two sections.

Place in the centre of the oven and bake for approximately 30 - 35 minutes, or until evenly coloured and firm to the touch.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin. If the cake has risen above the top of the tin, use a serrated knife to cut across the top to remove excess cake. Remove the cake from the tin.

When completely cold, brush the apricot jam onto the long sides of the cakes and join one plain and one pink slice together and then one pink and one plain on top creating a chequered pattern. Now brush the apricot jam over all the long sides.

Roll out the marzipan on some caster sugar making a rectangle approx 20 x 30cm (8 x12"). Neaten the edges.

Place the cake onto the marzipan so the one edge is lined up to the edge of the marzipan and completely wrap the marzipan around the cake. Trim away any surplus marzipan and to make a neat cake, just trim both ends with a clean knife.

The top edges of the cake can be decorated with crimpers if desired.

N.B. The pink colour can be substituted with chocolate or lemon.

Keep in an airtight container for up to a week.