Marzipan Is The Least Of It – Battenberg's Original Recipe Is Wildly Complicated

Having watched this year’s Great British Bake Off contestants attempt to make a Battenberg without a recipe, I realised how poor my own skills are.

After all, I don’t think I’ve ever made marzipan in my life ― the almond and sugar paste is notoriously hard to get right. 

Turns out, though, that the Bake Off hopefuls got off lightly by Victorian standards. 

The Battenberg cake, which was allegedly invented for Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria’s marriage to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884...