Baked a Cake

Our next stop on the 'Around the World in 12 Cakes' journey is merry old England. With so many cakes and desserts coming out of England, the decision of which one to recreate was a tough one, but being a lover of frangipane I decided on the Bakewell Tart.

Hailing from the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire, the Bakewell Tart enjoys romantic picnics and romantic walks on the beach... sorry I couldn't help myself. The bakewell tart is believed to have originated by mistake when an inexperienced and unsupervised servant spread the jam on the pastry base rather than on top of the almond and egg mixture and in the haste of service, the tart was served anyway. Seems like a perfectly delicious mistake if you ask me. 

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• For the Pastry
• 150g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 80g butter, cubed 
• 2-3 Tbsp cold water
• For the Jam
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp caster sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• For the Filling
• 150g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs plus 1 yolk, beaten
• 150g ground almonds
• Zest of 1 medium lemon
• 2 Tbsp flaked almonds
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Method
Pastry

• Heat the oven 170°C/325°F
• Place the flour, butter and salt into a food processor.
• Pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Add the water to the mixture and pulse again until the dough binds together and forms a ball, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.
• Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Jam

• Heat raspberries, water and caster sugar in a small saucepan until raspberries start to collapse and mixture starts to thicken.
• Add lemon juice to taste.
• Leave to cool and set.

Tart

• Grease a 20cm tart tin. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board to 5mm thick. Transfer pastry to tart tin and press into the edges. Prick the base all over with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
• Line the tart case with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Cook for 15 minutes or until the pastry is a pale golden color. Remove the baking beans, lightly brush the inside of the pastry case with a little egg white, cook for a further 5 minutes. Spread the raspberry jam onto the base of the pastry case. Leave to cool.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Add the beaten eggs and egg yolk a little at a time. Gently fold in the ground almonds and lemon zest.
• Pour the mixture in to the pastry case and gently level the surface to ensure the whole case is filled. Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on to the surface and bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden and set.
• Leave to cool and serve with cream or ice cream.