The Bakinglady 

I would like to think of this sexy little number as a bit of a posh totty Battunburg with layers instead of squares but still under its customary mantle of gorgeous golden marzipan... bursting with zingy orange and fresh blueberries its the perfect cake for afternoon tea.

What you need

150g self raising flour

150g caster sugar, plus a little extra to decorate

150g butter

3 medium sized eggs, beaten

75g ground almonds

150g fresh blueberries, plus a few extra for decoration

1 large orange- grated zest and reserve the juice

For the frosting

75g butter

130g icing sugar plus a little extra for rolling out the marzipan

100g full fat cream cheese

Grated zest of 1 large orange ( pare two long strips off first with a peeler to use for decoration)

2-3 tablespoons of shredless orange marmalade- try and find a fruity rather than bitter marmalade

300g marzipan

What you do

2 heaped tablespoons of caster sugar for the candied orange peel

Preheat the oven to 160c for a fan assisted oven or 180c for a regular oven and line a small baking tin with baking paper (mine was 11"x 7")

Place the butter, grated orange zest and caster sugar into a large bowl and using an electric beater, cream together until very light in colour, soft and fluffy- this takes about 10 minutes with a hand held mixer but its really important that you put some 'welly' into this stage to prevent the mixture splitting and to give you the best rise possible).

Beat in the egg a little at a time then fold in the flour and ground almonds followed by the fresh blueberries. Finally fold in the juice of half of the orange.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, level, then bake in the preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and bounces back when pushed gently with your fingers, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Meanwhile make the candied orange peel by thinly slicing the strips of reserved orange peel into matchstick thick lengths. Place into a small saucepan with 100mls of water and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the zest softens then add in 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and continue simmering until nearly all the water has evaporated and you are left with syrupy strands of zest. Leave to cool in the syrup.

Cream the butter and icing sugar in a medium sized bowl with the grated zest from the remainder of the orange until light and fluffy then gently stir in the cream cheese, don’t beat it too hard or it will go very soft and floppy.

Slice lengthwise  down the middle of the cooled cake,  to make two long, thin bars and spoon the cream cheese frosting onto the base of one of the cakes, smooth with a pallet knife then top with the second bar and push down gently to even the filling out.

Spread the shredless marmalade over the top and sides then roll out the marzipan thinly until it is just big enough to cover the filled cake. Carefully pick the rolled marzipan over the back of your rolling pin and position over the cake, smooth down so it sticks to the marmalade- if you want to decorate with the trimmings, go for it!

Mark the top of the cake into triangle shaped portions then sprinkle with a little caster sugar.

Decorate with some extra blueberries and the strips of orange zest…