Honey and Lemon Battenberg with blackberry jam

These super sweet but deliciously soft cakes draped in homemade amaretti (optional) marzipan is guaranteed to wow anyone. With the dessert's beautiful geometric pattern, the coloured sponges contrast against the golden icing.

Top tip for this recipe: use a Battenberg tin to make your cake rectangles in! It seriously pays off having this pieces of equipment and shouldn't be too expensive to buy. The slitted tin ensures your sponge colour are separated and that they are all the same size. If not, you can make 3 metal foil dividers in a deep square baking tin as a substitute.

Ingredient:

For the cake:

• 175g unsalted utter

• 175g caster sugar

• 3 medium eggs

• 175g self-raising flour

• 2tsp honey

• Pink food gel

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Blackberry/Bramble jam

For the marzipan:

• 220g ground almonds

• 240g icing sugar

• 2 medium egg yolks

• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• 1 tsp almond extract.

• 1 tbsp amaretto (optional)

Method:

1. For the sponge, preheat the oven to 160℃ fan. Grease the Battenberg tin with four segments with butter paper and flour. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until pale. Add the eggs one at a time and beat together, then fold in the flour until fluffy. Divide the mixture into two bowls. Add a few drops of pink food colouring and the honey to one board. Mix the lemon zest and juice into the second bowl.

2. Divide the the pink mixture into two of the segments and do the same with the lemon sponge to the remaining segments. Ensure that you don't overfill the tins, put any remaining mixture into cake cases and bake with the Battenberg. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins until risen and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before turning out carefully. Cool on a rack, then trim the sponges into a neat rectangle of all equal sizes and lengths.

3. For the marzipan, blitz the almonds and the icing sugar, then add the egg yolks, lemon juice and amaretto. Blitz in a food processor until it starts to come together. Turn out onto a worktop and knead slightly until the marzipan becomes workable. Cover until needed.

4. To assemble the cake, spread the blackberry jam over two sides of each of the four segments and place together so the pink and lemons squares are diagonal to each other. Wrap in clingfilm to shape the large square and allow it to set.

5. Dust the worktop with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to 3-5mm thick, re-rolling if it cracks. Spread each side of the cake with more jam, then place in the middle of the marzipan and roll the marzipan over the cake to cover, placing the join at the bottom. Cut off any overhanging edges with a sharp knife and voila!