BATTENBERG CAKE by ALEX and LEIRE

Ingredients

- 450 g (1 lb)marcipan
- 175 g (6 oz)butter
- 175 g (6 oz)caster sugar
- 175 g ( 6 oz)self-raising flour ( or plain flour + 1tsp baking powder)
- 3 eggs
-2-3 tsp apricot glaze ( or sieved apricot jam)
-1tsp vanilla essence
- Red or pink food colouring
-Icing

                                                    INSTRUCTIONS 

1-Cream together the butter and sugar 
2-Whisk the eggs in a small bowl together with the vanilla essence. Add half the eggs to the butter and sugar and beat in.
3-Sieve in half the flour and beat well. Now beat in, consecutively, the remaining egg and flour.
4-Lightly grease and line an 8¨ ( 20 cm) square cake tin with baking paper.Make a divider from baking foil and place down the centre of the tin.
5- Pour one half of the mixture into one half of the cake tin.
6-Beat in enough food colouring into the remaining mixture to give a strong pink colour,then pour it into the other half of the cake tin.
7-Bake at 170ºC for 25-30 minutes and allow to cool before turning the cake out of the tin.
8-Carefully trim the two sponge cakes to given neat rectangles of cake.Cut each sponge down the centre to give a total of four long oblongs.Using warm apricot glaze,stick the oblongs togheter into a checkerboard pattern.Trim further if necessary.
9-Sprinkle icing sugar onto a flat surface and roll out the marzipan to around 5mm ( 1/4) thick.
Spread apricot glaze onto the marzipan and slide the cake into the middle of the marzipan.Fold up the sides and make a neat seam on the top of the cake.
10-Turn the cake over so that the seam is on the bottom and trim the ends of the cake. Place on a serving plate/board and dust with icing sugar.