Battenberg cake
Pink and yellow almond sponge squares wrapped in marzipan. Fiddly to assemble, but the chequerboard slice is worth it.
- Time1 hr 30
- LevelHard
- Costabout £0.58 a head
- Oven180°C (160°C fan)
Cost is worked out from Aldi and Tesco shelf prices in October 2026. Your shop and brands will differ.
Ingredients
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Method
- 1
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease a 20cm square tin and line it with baking paper. Make a divider from a folded strip of foil to split the tin into two equal halves.
- 2
Beat the butter and caster sugar for 3 minutes until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour, ground almonds, almond extract and milk until smooth.
- 3
Spoon half the batter into a second bowl and stir in the pink colouring. Put the plain batter in one half of the tin and the pink in the other.
- 4
Bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
30 min - 5
Trim the edges so the cakes are neat, then cut each in half lengthways to make four equal strips.
- 6
Heat the jam until runny and sieve it. Stack the strips in a chequerboard, glueing each with jam.
- 7
Dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to a rectangle wide enough to wrap the cake. Brush with jam, wrap the cake tightly, trim the ends and press the join underneath. Mark a criss cross pattern on top if you like.
Double check before you cook. Recipes can contain mistakes. Any diet labels come from the ingredients as written in this recipe and are a guide, not a guarantee. Always check every ingredient and the packet label for allergens and cross contamination, and ask your doctor or dietitian what is right for you, especially with coeliac disease, diabetes or a serious allergy. This is not medical advice.