The cake recipe is followed fairly closely, with two 9 inch pans. Roast 3/4 cup pistachios for 10 mins in a 350 oven. Once slightly cool, blend into a powder. Prepare two 9 inch cake pans. In a mixer, mix two sticks of butter, 12/3 cup sugar, until slightly lighter. Add 2 cups cake flour, 1/2 cup pistachio powder, 1tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Then add 5 eggs, followed by 1/2 cup milk mixed with 2 tsp vanilla (note the order of eggs is slightly different, but this method works fine). Bake in 350 oven until done (about 25 or so minutes), and cool. I used store bought apricot preserve. Also made chocolate ganache with about 1 lb semisweet chocolate chips, 11/4 heavy cream, and added a spoon of corn syrup. For the marzipan: In a clean mixer, add 11/2 cup fine almond flour (not meal), 11/2 cup confectioner's sugar, 1 tsp rose water, 11/2 tsp almond extract and 4-6 tbsp light corn syrup. The dough should barely be coming together. Knead by hand (it should be a tough dough...like