Well this looks interesting. I’ve been looking forward to having a go at a Battenberg Cake, ever since I saw it being made as a technical challenge on the Great British Bake Off. It was first made in 1884 to honour the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenberg. It looks hard…Eeeeeeek. 
But the good thing is I have most of the ingredients, 
except for glazed cherries which I picked up Friday afternoon at the supermarket while waiting for my daughter’s prescription to be ready at the pharmacy. I wandered into the pharmacy afterwards with my four bags of shopping, and laid them carefully on the floor to pay for the prescription. There was a little clunk as I gently put down the bag containing the bottle of Rose. Then before my very eyes, the bottle started to empty out backwards and with an “Oh No,” from me and the staff, we watched the whole bottle dissipate all over the floor. 
Smelling of alcohol and not the wet wipe variety, 
I skedaddled after the big clean up, embarrassed and apologetic, and planned to take my bottomless bottle back to the supermarket for a refund. Must have been a weakness in the glass, I told myself. 
But standing at the help desk, the bottle had vanished!! A kind soul at the pharmacy had put it in the rubbish making my refund impossible. I trudged back to the car, still smelling of alcohol, Roseless on a Friday afternoon!!
This cake took hours to make, but partly because I was tired from a late night and partly because it was interrupted by my sister coming around for cake!!! 
I lined the tin, making a divider for the two sponges, fun and not as hard as it looked on TV! 
I made the sponge mixture and added finely chopped cherries and red food colouring to one half, and sliced almonds to the other. 
After baking and cooling, I assembled the Battenberg by cutting each sponge in half length ways, then brushing the surfaces with apricot jam. 
I placed these in a checkerboard pattern on the rolled out almond icing, then covered the whole cake with the icing and decorated the top with cherries and almonds. 
A very pretty, very sweet cake, each sponge with distinct flavours. 
Best not to be eaten with a glass of Rose as it turns out, but with a nice cup of tea made with some Aunt Jean’s Dairy fresh milk from the Food Show http://www.auntjeans.co.nz Milk in a glass bottle, so much nicer and more environmentally friendly.
I have to admit, I did give most of this cake away, to neighbours and friends. Can’t eat ’em all. 🙂
