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Want to feel like you’re on The Great British Bake Off? Make Battenberg cake. White- and pink-tinted slices of rich almond cake are brushed with apricot jam, artfully stacked, and covered with sweet almond marzipan for a cake that’s stunning and delicious enough to win the approval of Paul Hollywood any day of the week.
The Battenberg was originally invented in 1884 to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, to the German prince Louis of Battenberg. Since then, it has become a staple of traditional British baking, and its colorful checkered slices frequently appear on high-end tea trolleys.
Based on its colorful geometric appearance, this cake might seem complicated to make—but it’s actually very simple. Mix up a simple almond cake batter, tint half of it pink, and bake both cake batters side by side in a square cake pan, divided by folded parchment paper. The cooled cake is trimmed and cut into 4 even logs, which are brushed with jam, stacked to form a larger log, then rolled in bought marzipan to finish. No special tin, no buttercream to mix up, and no crazy complicated cake cutting.
If you’ve never worked with marzipan before, it’s a sweet almond dough made primarily from ground almonds and sugar. You can either make your own or buy it premade (which we highly recommend!), but whichever way you choose, it’s pretty sticky and can be challenging to work with—which is why we strongly suggest rolling it out between sheets of plastic wrap and using the plastic wrap to help wrap it around your cake.
Did you try making this cake? Let us know how it went in the comments!
Cooking spray
(150 g.) all-purpose flour
(50 g). almond flour
baking powder
(1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
(150 g.) granulated sugar
kosher salt
large eggs, room temperature
almond extract
whole milk
drops (or more) pink food coloring
apricot jam
ready-to-roll marzipan
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