Marzipan – place the icing sugar, ground almonds, egg white, brandy, lemon juice and almond essence in stand mixer bowl, mix on low speed. Knead for a few minutes. Wrap tightly in cling film and keep at room temp.
Make the divider for the sponge. Cut a piece of tinfoil 20 × 28cm and fold it in half widthways. Spray foil with oil. Open foil out, place a piece of baking paper the same size on top, fold baking paper in half over top of the foil, then push the centrefold upwards to make a pleat 4cm high. Crease it firmly, then press the parchment-lined foil sheet with the centre pleat onto the base of greased tin to line it – the pleat will run down the centre of the tin to divide it into two separate sections each 20 × 10cm.
Sponge – Cream butter and sugar. In a separate bowl mix eggs and essences. Sieve the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the egg mix to the creamed butter while creaming.
Lightly fold in the flour mix. Do not beat.
Pour half the mix into one side of the tin. In the remaining mixture, add a few drops of food colouring to get a pale pink colour. Pour into the other side of the tin. Smooth the batter right to the edges. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from tin.
Cut each colour of sponge in half lengthways. Trim all the strips so the short sides are a perfect square.
Clean the benchtop, then dust it lightly with icing sugar. Knead the marzipan for a minute so that it is supple, then roll out to a neat rectangle, big enough to wrap around the cake but not too thin to be transparent.
Heat jam then push it through a sieve to make a smooth puree. Brush long side of one of the pink cake strips very lightly with jam and set it jam-side down on one short side of marzipan rectangle, lined up next to the edge. Brush the three other long sides of this piece of cake lightly with jam. Brush one long side of a yellow cake strip with jam and set it jam-side down onto the marzipan next to the pink strip, touching it. Brush the top of this strip with jam.Set the other yellow strip on top of the pink strip that is on the marzipan.
Lightly brush one long side of the second pink strip with jam and set it next to this second yellow strip, so that it sits on top of the yellow strip that’s on the marzipan. You will now have created the familiar checkerboard pattern.
To finish the cake, brush the top and long sides of assembled cake with apricot jam, then roll the cake or wrap the marzipan neatly around the cake, covering the checkerboard ends. Press the marzipan join to seal it (it should be along one bottom edge). Gently smooth the marzipan and press out any air pockets.
