I would like, if I may, to apologise for my absence last week. Sadly, my dad passed away, and with all the emotion and rushing about, you’ll understand that my mind was not on writing.

Dad always loved reading these articles, cutting them out and storing them away, and it was he who first introduced me to the world of food, popping me on a stool to stir the gravy for Sunday lunch when I was a small boy.

Years of international travel followed, with us all enjoying trips across Europe, to the US and Far East, where I learned to enjoy the cuisines of the world, and later the wines to accompany them!

I owe him an almost incalculable debt of gratitude and would just like to place on record that, without dad, I wouldn’t be here every week, sharing my recipes and stories with you. He will be very much missed.

Now, to business; this recipe is one that came to me as I was drifting off to sleep one night, where the colours and flavours instantly sprung into my head.

It’s not an original idea (I’m sure I’ve seen it baked before) but at that moment I knew I had to make it as soon as possible. I’m like that with recipes; I get a bee in my bonnet and have great difficulty not leaping instantly into the car and heading to the shops. I decided on this occasion not to get up and dressed to hit the supermarket at 11pm, deciding that it could wait just a short while.

We’re making a version of the classic Battenberg cake, which first started appearing in the late 1800s, though it is said to have been created by royal patissiers to celebrate the 1884 wedding of Prince Louis of Battenberg to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria.

It originally featured an impressive nine separate panels of coloured cake, which must have looked incredible, and been a proper old bugger to put together!

It’s always been a favourite here in the UK, and since the recent renaissance in home baking, is now back on the plates and cake stands of the nation as it should be.

My idea was to take the original recipe, blend it with the flavours of that other great classic cake, the Black Forest Gateau, and create a vibrant pink and brown Battenberg, filled with the flavours of almonds and cherries. And it worked a treat.

We know that chocolate and cherries are extremely good companions, and in this cake they get on so well, along with the rich marzipan which is also flavoured with chocolate.

It’s worth making your own marzipan here – it’s worth making your own marzipan almost every time, in fact – as it adds such a wonderful flavour to the finished cake, and has a terrific chewy texture which sits well with the light sponge and sticky jam.

All you need is a good food processor and the freshest almonds you can lay your hands on. I also added a little kick of Kirsch, which lends the cake a very grown-up flavour, but you can easily omit this.

So, while it may not be traditional, this Battenberg is certainly one worth adding to the notebook, because it looks and tastes wonderful.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE MARZIPAN:

170g unrefined golden caster sugar

200g icing sugar

400g whole almonds (or ground almonds if you have no machine)

100g cocoa powder

2 eggs, plus

2 egg yolks, beaten

FOR THE CHERRY SPONGE:

175g unsalted butter, very soft

175g unrefined golden caster sugar

140g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

½ tsp baking powder

3 medium fresh, free-range eggs

A few drops red food colouring

A few drops cherry essence

FOR THE VANILLA SPONGE:

175g unsalted butter, very soft

175g unrefined golden caster sugar

140g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

½ tsp baking powder

3 medium fresh, free-range eggs

½ tsp vanilla extract

EXTRAS:

1 jar black cherry jam

Kirsch

Extra icing sugar

METHOD:

First, the marzipan; whizz the almonds to a fine powder in the food processor. Add the sugars and the cocoa and whizz for a few seconds to mix well. Add the egg and mix again to combine into a smooth dough. Scoop together, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.

Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Take a 20cm loose-bottomed square cake tin and brush it with melted butter. Flour it generously, shaking out the excess.

To make the almond sponge, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one by one. Sift the flour with the baking powder, add the ground almonds, and fold into the whisked mixture. Scrape the mixture carefully into the tin, spreading to the corners, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is golden and firm. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Repeat the process for the pink cake, adding the colouring just before baking. To assemble, heat the jam gently and pass through a fine sieve to obtain a smooth thick sauce. Trim the cakes of their tops, bottoms and sides, and cut 4 long strips as wide as they are high. Drizzle the cakes with a little kirsch, if using.

Dust a suitable flat surface with icing sugar, and roll out a marzipan block to just wider than the length of your cake slices, then lengthways until the marzipan is roughly ½cm thick. Brush the marzipan with the sieved jam, then lay a pink and plain slice side by side at one end of the marzipan, brushing plenty of jam in between to stick the sponges together, and leaving a little overhang of marzipan at the edges.

Carefully brush more jam on top of the sponges, then sandwich the other two slices on top, reversing the colours to give the chessboard effect. Carefully roll the cake over and over, making sure the marzipan stays tight to the cake.

Carefully cut the excess marzipan away, and sit the cake upright with the join on the underside. Finally, carefully trim the excess marzipan from the ends of the finished cake with a serrated knife. Repeat the whole process for the second cake. Chill in the fridge for an hour to set the marzipan, and you’re ready to serve.

The cakes will keep, cling-wrapped, in the fridge for up to a week.