English Battenberg Cake

Description
Contributed by Catsrecipes Y-Group

Ingredients

 * 1 cup butter
 * 1 cup castor sugar, extra fine white sugar, fruit sugar or take regular sugar and blend in blender until it is fine
 * 2 cups self rising flour
 * ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
 * 2 to 4 tablespoons milk
 * 2 tablespoons apricot jam

Almond paste

 * 1 cup confectioners' (icing) sugar (4 ounces)
 * ½ cup castor sugar (extra fine white sugar) (4 ounces)
 * 1⅓ cups ground almonds (8 ounces)
 * 1 teaspoon lemon juice
 * a few drops almond essence
 * 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

 * 1) Heat the oven to fairly hot 375°F.
 * 2) Prepare a 9 x 6-inch cake tin by cutting a piece of heavy aluminium foil the exact length of the base, but 2 inches wider than the width.
 * 3) Fold a pleat in the middle so that the foil lies quite flat on the bottom of the tin and the pleat stands up, forming a wall which divides the tin into two oblongs of equal size.
 * 4) With a wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl, until the mixture is very light and creamy.
 * 5) Add the eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition, along with 1 tablespoon of flour.
 * 6) Stir well to mix.
 * 7) Fold in the remaining flour and the vanilla essence.
 * 8) Mix in a little milk, if it is necessary, to make the batter of a consistency that will drop easily off the spoon.
 * 9) Pour half the cake batter into one half of the prepared cake tin.
 * 10) Mix the cocoa into the rest of the batter, add a spoonful of milk, if necessary, and pour it into the other half of the tin.
 * 11) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
 * 12) When the cake is cooked, set it aside to cool.
 * 13) While the cake is baking, make the almond paste.

Almond paste

 * 1) Sift the icing sugar and the castor sugar together into a medium-size mixing bowl.
 * 2) Mix in the ground almonds.
 * 3) Add the lemon juice, almond essence and enough beaten egg to bind all the ingredients into a paste.
 * 4) Sprinkle your working surface with a little icing sugar and put the paste on it.
 * 5) Knead the almond paste until it is smooth.
 * 6) Be careful not to over-knead as the paste will become oily.
 * 7) Remove the cake from the tin.
 * 8) Trim the two halves to equal size and cut each in half length ways.
 * 9) Spread the side of one piece of white cake with the apricot jam and place a brown piece next to it.
 * 10) Spread jam on top of the two halves.
 * 11) Repeat with the other two halves of the cake, alternating the white and brown, and place on top of the jam covered layer to form a checker-board pattern.
 * 12) Press gently together.
 * 13) Spread the remaining jam over the top and the sides of the cake.
 * 14) On a lightly sugared board roll the almond paste into an oblong large enough to encase the whole cake.
 * 15) Wrap it round the cake, trimming the edges to leave the ends of the cake uncovered.
 * 16) Crimp the top edges to make a border and, with a knife, score a criss-cross pattern on the top.
 * 17) Keep the cake in a tin with a tight fitting lid for two days before serving.