Recipe: Cherry bakewell Cake

Sunday afternoons are what i enjoy most, the Sunday roast gets put in the oven about 3pm and then its time to get out and about with Belle.

This Sundays walk was better than usual as Lillie joined me, this doesnt happen often as she spends most afternoons on Skype or Facetime catching up with her friends.

As we walked and chatted we discovered a new route and decided we would have a bit of a look around, Lillie to her amazement found eight cherry trees and decided she was going to pick some for Zoe, her Mam.

" Dad chuck me up the tree"

" Dad give me a bunk-up"

" Dad grab the branch" this is what i done and the picking began.

After about 30 minutes of having a laugh and generally enjoying the simple things in life,  Lillie had filled her small bag, this was when she decided to call it a day.

On the walk home we talked about the trees we had found and what we could do with the cherries from them.

This got me thinking of an old recipe i had once used with great results so i thought i would share it with you today, please find it below 

Cherry Bakewell cake

For the cake

200g butter, well softened, plus extra for greasing

200g golden caster sugar

100g ground almonds

100g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp almond extract or essence

4 large eggs

For the filling and top

½ a 340g jar morello cherry conserve

175g icing sugar

5-6 tsp water or lemon juice

1 tbsp ready-toasted flaked almonds

Method

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and make sure there’s a shelf ready in the middle. Butter and line the bases of 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins with baking paper.

Using electric beaters, beat together all the cake ingredients with a pinch of salt until smooth, then spoon into the tins and level the tops. Bake for 30 mins or until golden and springy. Don’t open the oven before 25 mins cooking time has passed.

When they’re ready, cool the sponges for a few mins, then tip out of the tins and cool completely on a wire rack. Make sure the top of one of the cakes is facing up as you’ll want a smooth surface for the icing later on.

When cool, put one sponge on a serving plate, then spread with jam. Sandwich the second sponge on top. Sieve the icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the water or lemon juice, then stir until smooth and thick. Spread evenly over the top and let it dribble over the sides. Scatter with the nuts and leave to set for a few mins before cutting.

Recipe: Cherry apple tart

For the Pastry
100g butter
Two eggs
175g sifted flour
Two drops of vanilla essence

For the filling
200g unsalted butter
200g sugar
Four eggs
100g ground almonds
50g plain flour
Three medium cooking apples
150g cherries- halved and stoned

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 150c

First cook the pastry base
In a bowl,cream the butter with the eggs until smooth
Gently fold in the flour and the vanilla extract and bring together in a ball.
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 45 minutes.
Roll out and line an eight-inch pastry ring of flan dish.
To bake blind, cover the pastry with foil and weigh it down with dried beans and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven, lift off the foil and allow to cool.

pre-heat the oven to 180c
To make the filling, in a mixing bowl, cream together the butter with the sugar, then , adding them individually, beat the eggs.
Using a metal spoon, gently fold in the ground almonds followed by the flour.

Peel and slice the apples. Half fill the pastry case with almond mix and fan the apples on top.
Then fill the case with the remaining mix and arrange the halved cherries on top.
Place in the oven and bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean-about 20-25 minutes.
Serve warm, possibly with mascarpone, creme fraiche or fresh cream.