Italian rainbow cookies

Heat the oven to 350 with racks in the upper third and the lower third.

Brush the pans with melted butter so the parchment sticks, lay parchment in with an overhang and press it down and against the sides. Do not grease the parchment, or the jam cannot soak into the cakes.

Fold an aluminum foil dam into the larger pan to give the area of a quarter sheet tray, and lay parchment inside it.

Crumble the almond paste in pieces into the stand mixer bowl.

Add the room temperature butter, the sugar and the salt and cream on low to break up the almond paste, then on medium high with the paddle, scraping down once or twice, until very pale, light and fluffy.

Add the five room temperature eggs one at a time, taking time so the mixture is not overwhelmed with liquid and stays emulsified, scraping down as you go.

Whip on medium high for several more minutes until very airy.

Beat in two teaspoons of vanilla extract and three quarters of a teaspoon of almond extract. No other liquid goes in; the eggs are the liquid, so the batter stays very thick.

Stop the mixer, add the flour all at once, pulse it in and then mix on low, stopping while slightly under mixed.

Fold by hand a few times, scraping the bottom, to pick up unincorporated flour.

Weigh the batter into three equal parts. Scrape the untinted third into a pan first so the clean spatula can be used for a colour.

Tint one part red and one part green, adding gel colour a little at a time. The colour intensifies during baking.

Spread each batter into its pan in a thin even layer; it will look very thin but the layers rise a little and get stacked.

Bake at 350, the double wide pan on the upper rack and the red layer below, switching them at about 10 minutes.

Bake until the surface is very lightly golden brown where the little bubbles form and looks matte rather than shiny and the cake pulls away from the sides, just over 15 minutes. Do not over bake or the cakes dry out.

Warm the jam in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring until very fluid, then press it through a sieve to collect the solids, which would otherwise get in the way of fusing and cutting.

Cool the cakes about 15 minutes, so they are ever so slightly warm and still hold some steam.

On a cutting board, start with the red layer, parchment left on the bottom, and spread the raspberry jam to the edges in a thin even layer with an offset spatula.

Invert the untinted layer on top and centre it, spread the apricot jam, then invert the green layer so its baked, smoothest surface faces up and its exposed crumb sits against the jam.

Wrap the stack fully in plastic, weight it with something of modest mass on a cutting board, and refrigerate overnight so the layers fuse.

Where the sides sit lower than the middle, fold a towel under the weighting board so the pressure is even.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave on low power in 30 second bursts, stirring between, without tempering it.

Pour and spread the chocolate over the cold slab in a generous layer, going close to the edges.

Chill five to ten minutes until the chocolate is hardened, then let it temper a little so it is not brittle and will not chip when sliced.

Trim the edges away with long strokes, then cut lengthwise into quarters and crosswise into thin slices, wiping the knife between cuts so chocolate is not dragged through the layers.