Paul Hollywood’s Mini Battenbergs

Method

Step 1
Prepare the tin. Fold the strip of baking paper/foil in half and, holding the folded edge, fold it over by 6.5cm, then open up the foil on either side and re-crease the centre folds to make a standing divider. Place the divider in the centre of the prepared tin to separate it into two halves.

Step 2
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4.

Step 3
Make the sponges. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, caster sugar and almond extract until pale and creamy. One at a time, add the eggs, adding a tablespoon of the flour to prevent curdling, if necessary. Fold in the remaining flour, then divide the mixture in half. Fold a few drops of pink food colouring into one half to make the colour of strawberry ice-cream.

Step 4
Spoon each sponge mixture into the separate sides of the tin. Level both with a palette knife. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until well risen and golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 5
Make the jam. Place the apricots and sugar in a small, deep-sided pan. Cook over a low heat until the sugar dissolves, crushing the apricots with a potato masher. Increase the heat to high and boil for 4 minutes, until the temperature reaches 105°C/221°F on the cooking thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat and pass the jam through a metal sieve into a heatproof bowl. Leave to cool and set.

Step 6
Make the buttercream. Using a wooden spoon or an electric hand whisk, beat the butter and the icing sugar in a bowl until very pale, fluffy and smooth. Set aside until ready to use.

Step 7
Make the marzipan. Blitz the ground almonds, icing sugar and caster sugar in a food processor. Add the egg white and almond extract, then pulse to a smooth paste. Remove from the processor and knead in a very small amount of yellow food colouring until the marzipan is a pastel yellow colour. Cover with a tea towel until ready to use.

Step 8
Assemble the mini Battenbergs. Once the sponges are cool, slice each one lengthways into 4 equal, long strips. Turn each strip of sponge onto its side, then cut each sponge strip lengthways down the middle. You should end up with 8 long fingers of white sponge and 8 long fingers of pink sponge.

Step 9
Lay all the sponge fingers, alternating white and pink, side-by-side and spread thinly with buttercream.

Step 10
Lay 2 alternating strips of sponge side-by-side and another 2 on top of each other (so that the pink sits on top of the white, and the white sits on top of the pink), spreading all sides with buttercream to stick them together and give a chequerboard effect. Trim the ends, then cut into 8cm lengths.

Step 11
Roll out the marzipan on a work surface lightly dusted with granulated sugar to about 3mm thick. Cut the marzipan into eight 18 x 8cm rectangles, re-rolling as necessary.

Step 12
Brush a marzipan rectangle very thinly with the apricot jam. Place a mini cake onto the middle of the marzipan and wrap it around the cake, smoothing it over the sides so it is tightly wrapped. Turn the cake over so the marzipan seam is on the underside. Repeat with the remaining marzipan, jam and cakes until all eight are complete.