Merry Cherry Bakewell Fairy Cakes!

Bakewell Tarts are delicious and I have made them here on the blog before but then recently I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought to myself – I do need to make those don’t I? They look like the iconic British Fairy Cake – a small simple cake much like an American cupcake but lighter in texture and without the great walloping swirls of frosting/buttercream – of which I am greatly fond so alas on that score!!

Anyhow I took the recipe from a Butcher Baker Blog pin on Pinterest – lots of good British pudding recipes there, do check it out!! - and I added some marzipan to it and here you have my version of the Cherry Bakewell Fairy Cake – a bit of a bogus title really as the only cherry part is on the top – they should really be called marzipan fairy cakes – but they’re not and there you have it!! Here's a link to a standard British Cherry Bakewell.

First make the MARZIPAN – if you decided to use it or buy a package of marzipan and roll into 8 even balls.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

INGREDIENTS for the marzipan if you chose to make it yourself:

2oz toasted almonds ground fine in a coffee grinder – usually you wait until warm things are cool to grind them because they get oily or damp but in this case you want to make the grind a bit soggy so I did them while they were still warm.

2oz icing/confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract/essence

1 egg yolk – from a reliable source so you have no risk of salmonella – if you are worried about using raw egg yolks them maybe just buy your marzipan or almond paste – whichever you prefer.

1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mush/knead together until the mixture holds – break and roll into 8 even balls and put aside until later.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FAIRY CAKES – they should all be at room temperature: This recipe makes 8 - an odd amount I know – it is supposed to make 12 but I didn’t see how you stretched the batter that far – you could go to 10 maybe and then they’d be bit more even with the top of the cupcake liner.

4 oz butter softened

4 oz sugar

4 oz flour plain/all purpose flour sifted together with 1 scant teaspoon baking powder or 4oz self raising flour

2 eggs whisked well

1 teaspoon almond extract/essence

8 scant teaspoons raspberry jam

8 glace cherries – the traditional ones and they’re nice because they’re not wet like the ones I chose which are maraschino cherries – I chose them because I found a brand which has no red dye or artificial preservatives which I like but they are wetter and should be drained for a while before using. 

If you would like to use cups instead of weights HERE'S a great place to covert:



METHOD FOR CAKES: Firstly put your cupcake liners into muffin pans to help the cakes stand up whilst baking.

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light in texture and colour.

2. Slowly add eggs bit by bit and beat well in between additions.

3. Beat in the almond extract/essence.

4. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder with a metal spoon – apparently this stops air escaping – a wooden spoon lets the air escape - until evenly mixed!

5. Separate your mixture in two even parts – just to each side of the bowl – and then spoon a good big teaspoon dollop of batter into each cupcake case.

6. Add a good teaspoon of jam to each and then bob the ball of marzipan on top of each blob of jam thus:

7. Top with more batter and try to smooth the batter to seal the jam and marzipan in nice and cozily:

 8. Bob into the 350F oven and bake for about 20 minutes until risen and golden and the tops spring back to slight pressure.

9. Because of the addition of the marzipan the middles dip a bit but no worries – you‘ll be filling them with icing and a merry cherry!!

10. Remove from oven and move onto a cooling rack – allow to cool completely

In the meantime make the icing – 2oz icing/confectioner’s sugar and I scant tablespoon boiling water – or a bit less – my icing was a tad runny – mix the two together and allow to thicken a bit before you use – just keep stirring if it starts to dry out on top.

When the cakes are cooled completely put a small teaspoon of icing on the top and smooth into a circle – as I said mine was a bit runny and I put a bit too much on so it ran down the edge of the cakes but you want to keep the icing in a nice neat circle on the top that stays about a good ¼" from the edge of the cakes – you can see how I TRIED to do that.

Allow icing to dry a little before adding your cherries maraschino or glace or......

...the juices will flow as above...and mess up your nice white icing :((

These are the maraschino cherries I used - no red dye and preservative free and delicious MERRY MARASCHINO CHERRIES!!

 

Look at that lovely nugget of marzipan - I love marzipan!! - I didn't add enough jam to mine as you can see so I adjusted the recipe above to give yours more and be more like the original Bakewell Tart.
Ta Dah you’ve made Fairy Cakes!!

A neighbourhood reprieve and Quince Frangipane Tart for Thanksgiving!

'Ello, 'Ello!!!

YEA!!! These beauties were saved from the table this Thanksgiving by my lovely neighbour Rita, she was planning on having them for dinner but decided they were just too friendly and gorgeous to say "goodbye" to....good on ya Rita, they are a lovely rafter or gang (correct group name!) of turkey's.... just look at those faces!! Their colours are beautiful...pink, blue and red...very handsome...

...and below is one of their witty and ever so sweetly noisy companions, they make a little trilling sound...a guinea fowl, aren't their faces adorable...they really do look like clowns with serious stage make-up and funny little hair do's.

In celebration of their reprieve I made a quince frangipane tart...it's rather like the Bakewell tart I did a while ago, in fact VERY like it with basically the addition of grated quince. I actually found these quince at Hannaford's. They were incredibly underripe...very green... but they did have a good smell which apparently is indicative of the possibility that they may indeed ripen. I waited until they were as yellow as I think they were ever going to get, and they smelled quite fragrantly of pineapple. Quince must be cooked in order to be eaten, they are mealy and astringent when raw, if you poach them they turn a delicate pink.

Here is the recipe:

QUINCE AND FRANGIPANE TART
Tart shell from Martha, a pate brisee...extremely reliable, very good, stays crisp, I've added more sugar than the recipe says and it's a good addition. The recipe here is for one 8-9" shallow pie but I made two small tarts with the same amount.

1 1/4 cups of white flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold
1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water

1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest whilst you make the filling.

The frangipane:
3 1/2 ozs almonds, toasted

3 1/2 ozs butter softened

1 3/4 ozs white flour unbleached

3 1/2 ozs white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extract/essence

2 ripe quince - peeled, cored and grated

Some apricot preserves....the amount depends on your tastebuds

SET OVEN TO 400F

1. When the almonds have cooled after toasting grind them either in a coffee grinder in small batches with some of the flour in each batch to stop the nuts becoming oily or do all the almonds and all the flour in a food processor until fine.

2. Add the sugar and extracts.

3. Mix in the softened butter very well.

4. Add the beaten eggs and mix.

5. Mix in the grated quince and set mixture aside.

NEXT: Roll out the pastry and line your chosen case/s - dock/prick small holes in the pastry with a fork  so it doesn't puff up during baking, line with some parchment paper and fill with beans or pie weights - blind/pre-bake the pieshell for about 12 minutes in a 400F oven.

Allow the pieshell to cool and spread the desired amount of apricot preserves over the bottom...I like just a smattering to give a little tang to the tart...you may have more if you like, I give you permission to do so!! Tee hee.

NOW: Spread the frangipane on top of the preserves and spread evenly.

Bake in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes or until the whole top of the tart is golden brown and the mixture is obviously set.

Allow the tart to cool, it definitely tastes best at room temperature.


The quince adds a very unusual but not strange delicate, almost perfumey taste to the tart...something you haven't quite tasted before but yet it is somehow familiar. Well worth hunting around for this odd combination of apple and pear shaped fruit, which are only available at this time of the year.

HAPPY BAKING AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING

YEA FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD TURKEYS AND RITA!!!!

Bakewell Tart...it's certainly not cake but is it a pudding, tart or pie?

In typical inimitable British style this dessert recipe is called a pudding because ALL Brit desserts come under the title of ‘pudding’ and this particular one, from the beautiful little northern town of Bakewell, is meant to be consumed after the evening meal, as the ‘pudding’ course, and not for tea in the afternoon when it would indeed be called a tart or pie. Are you confused yet? In texture this pie is somewhat akin to a pecan pie without the nuts. It is dense and moist and actually quite light in flavour. It improves greatly with a day of ‘maturing’ at room temperature, and I highly recommend this, in a trusty metal cake tin and is always eaten cool but not cold (definitely not out of the fridge!!!...bad form I say!!). It is not fussy or elegant but it is a very satisfying Farmhouse recipe especially if you like almond flavoured delights as I do. Here we go with the recipe:

Pate Brisee for the crust...a very reliable and crisp version which keeps well.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 stick very cold butter, grated on a box grater

1/8 to 1/4 cup of very cold water

Mix flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add grated butter ( I do all my pastry by hand so grating the butter helps keep things cool for better pastry...of course you can choose to do this in a food processor)....rub the butter into the flour mix until it resembles coarse meal then quickly add in the water by dribbles, I mix with a fork to keep everything cool, and when you think it is wet enough, and it’s always less than you think, quickly and gently ‘sqwoosh’ pastry together until you have a cohesive lump. Put into the fridge for, at the very least, half an hour and preferably longer, to ‘rest’. We all need a rest after this!

Take the pastry out of the fridge and let it warm up slightly before rolling out and lining a glass pie dish 9" diameter. Put back in fridge until ready to be filled.

The filling:

Raspberry jam preferably, strawberry second, anything else you choose third.

4 oz butter melted and slightly cooled

4 oz sugar

4oz roasted and ground almonds...if you are doing the roasting and grinding yourself let the almonds cool COMPLETELY, to get rid of any moisture, before you grind them in a coffee or spice grinder, and grind with equal amounts of the sugar so the mixture doesn’t get sticky.

4 egg yolks

3 egg whites whipped to soft peaks

½ teaspoon almond extract...have you tried the almond extract by ‘Simply organics’, it is the best I have ever tasted.

Putting it all together:

1. Take piecase out of fridge and spread your chosen jam over the bottom...I like just a schmear, others like more...traditionally it is less rather than more.

2. Mix melted butter, almond extract and ground almonds and sugar together til well blended, add egg yolks and blend til smooth and finally add the beaten egg whites gently in batches so as not to deflate the bubbles.

3. Spread mixture over the jam and make sure the jam is sealed around the edges or else it will bubble out in baking.

4. Bake in the middle of a 350 degree oven for about half an hour until the filling is completely set but be careful not to burn the pastry.

Ta dah!! You have yourself a good northern English classic recipe that has been around for hundred’s of years and is still made prolifically in it’s home county of Derbyshire.

Happy Baking...let me know how it comes out! Check this bakewell link out for more info!