This is a more complicated recipe with many steps, but well worth the end result. It combines shortcrust pastry with an almond sponge and decorative icing so if you haven’t made any of these before I’d give jam tarts or a simple sponge a go first. 

Bakewell is traditionally made with a cherry jam filling however, I like to use whatever I have in my store cupboard. My children’s favourite is raspberry jam, whereas I love it with Lemon curd in the middle. This particular time I have used some homemade apricot jam which goes wonderfully with the almonds. Feel free to use your favourite to make your own variation.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the pastry:

8oz Self Raising Flour

2oz hard butter substitute (i.e. Stork)

2oz White vegetable fat or lard (i.e. Trek)

2 tbsp cold water

For the filling:

8oz (225g) Jam of your choice

For the Sponge:

6oz soft butter substitute (i.e. vitalite or pure sunflower)

6oz caster sugar

3 eggs

3oz self raising flour

3oz of ground almonds

½ tsp of almond extract

For the icing:

12oz icing sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

recently boiled water

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C

For the pastry:

Rub the fats and flour till it resembles bread crumbs

Mix in the water with a knife

Roll out onto a floured surface making sure it is no thicker than a £1 coin. Then, using the rolling pin, lift the pastry into the baking tray and trim the edges with a knife.

If the pastry cracks a little when moving it, don’t worry. If you have any cracks or gaps use the excess pastry to cover over and push down to fill them in. Once baked you wont see any repairs, but Jam leakage would be a disaster so take your time and get it right.

There is no need to blind bake for this recipe so fill the base with Jam to about the same thickness as the pastry then leave to one side, while you make the sponge topping.

 

For the sponge:

Cream the spread and sugar together until it is light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time and beat into the mix. If you find the mix starts to curdle a bit, just add a little bit of the pre-measured flour and beat till it comes together again.

Add the remaining flour and the ground almonds bit at a time, and mix till everything has come together.

Add 1tsp of almond extract for flavour and mix through

Pour on top of the pastry and jam base so that the sponge mix sits just below the pastry line, leaving room for it to rise without spilling over.

Put into the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 mins, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester or knife put into the middle comes out clean.

If you have any sponge mix left over as I do, just put it into some cupcake cases and bake for about 20 mins once your bakewell comes out of the oven.

For the icing:

Make sure the bakewell has cooled completely. It will need at least 30 mins but may need up to an hour depending on how warm the house is.

Mix the icing sugar with some recently boiled water till you get a smooth icing, thick enough to coat the back of the spoon without running off. Add the water very slowly to get to this stage. If you add too much and the icing gets too runny, don’t panic, just add a little more icing sugar to thicken it again. Keep adding water and icing sugar till you reach the desired consistency. 

Spread the white icing over the entire tray bake. 

Quickly add a tsp of cocoa powder to the remaining icing and put into a piping bag.

Pipe lines of chocolate icing across the cake before the white icing sets.

Finally use a cocktail stick to draw straight lines across the cake in the opposite direction to your chocolate stripes. This will pull the icing, causing the chocolate lines to take on that familiar bakewell pattern.

Make sure you allow the icing plenty of time to fully set before cutting into slices.

Let me know how you get on with one. I hope you enjoy making it as much as I do! Feel free to leave a comment and you can follow me on facebook too