Holly March 18, 2014

Flourless chocolate cake

I get asked an awful lot about gluten free baking and when I explain that I’m really not very experienced in that department I usually get the reply that it’s easy and I should look into it. Well it’s still on my list of things to do, but I’m afraid as Baby Bell #3 gets steadily closer to being baked other stuff takes over – like sorting through baby clothes, assembling the cot and practising my hypno birthing in the hope I won’t completely embarrass myself by crying and screaming like an angry toddler when faced with the joy that is labour.

What I have instead is a cake that’s naturally gluten free and that also tastes delicious. I really do love this cake, it’s almost damp, which isn’t an adjective you’ll find me use very often, but it is correct. It also has a crunchy meringue like crust that’s addictive.

One year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs

Two years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits

Three years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread

Gluten free chocolate cake

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate, broken into squares
4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
160g soft butter
120g caster sugar
200g ground almonds

For the icing:

100g dark chocolate
45g butter

Preheat the oven to 150C/gas mark 2. Grease and line a 20cm round, loose springform cake tin. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second blasts or use the bain marie method, stir and set aside to cool. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form and set aside. Then in a separate bowl beat the yolks, butter, sugar and almonds until light and fluffy – about 7 minutes by hand or 4 in a KitchenAid. Add the dark chocolate and give it another good beating until well combined.

Take a third of the egg whites and use a spatula to stir into the chocolate cake mixture. You are aiming to loosen the mixture so simply stir well rather than fold. Then when that third has disappeared take the rest of the egg whites and fold into the mixture using large slicing motions with a metal spoon. When all traces of egg white are gone pour/spoon into the tin and bake for 45 – 50 minutes until the top has risen and started to crack a little. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing from the tin to full cool. Do not worry if the cake sinks a little upon cooling.

To make the icing simply melt the chocolate (as before) and the butter together, stir well then leave to set a little in the bowl before spooning over the top of the cooled cake. (I turn my cake upside down for a smoother top side.) Leave to set at room temperature.

Serve with berries, ice-cream or simply alone. The texture is dense and damp, very grown up indeed.

Holly January 7, 2014

Cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes

Cakes and Bakes 8 Replies

I’m not immune to the desire to diet in January, but I have always been someone who baulks at following the crowd. So in single years gone by I’ve laughed in the face of abstinence from alcohol, butter, sugar and wheat come January time and instead rather enjoyed the emptier bars cities have to offer, the quicker service and ease of finding a seat to park my ample rear.

This year I find myself pregnant for the first time in the month of January and so I shall consume (almost) whatever I want and worry about losing those pounds at a later, sunnier, salad friendly date. So, I give you my cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes. You may or may not remember these from the Great British Bake Off, for they are what I baked in the first week when I still retched every time the director shouted ‘action.’

NB: This recipe also appears on the BBC website here in case some of you are thinking you’ve seen it before.

One year ago: Dough balls and Leek, potato and ham soup and Roasted celeriac, carrot and parsnip soup and My lightest Yorkshire puddings

Two years ago: Diet friendly roast pork and Jelly and ice-cream meringue roulade and Good flapjack and Banana, butterscotch and fig traybake

Three years ago: Treasure hunt ice-cream and Rhubarb and ginger chutney and Carrot cake

Cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients:

150g soft butter or margarine
150g castor sugar
100g self raising flour
60g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk
3 large eggs at room temperature
90g raspberry jam
250g icing sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
12 glace cherries, washed and dried

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. For the cupcakes, cream the butter/margarine in a bowl until light and fluffy. (Use the flat beater if using your KitchenAid.) Add the sugar, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and eggs then mix until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until smooth.

Using an apple corer, carefully remove the middle of the cupcakes and eat/discard. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam using a teaspoon. Carefully spoon the icing onto the top of each cake until the icing reaches the sides of the cake case and top with a cherry. Leave to set before serving.

Beautiful photography courtesy of Lyndsey James.

Holly January 21, 2013

Love cupcakes

Cakes and Bakes 4 Replies

What does love feel like? When I was 15 and fell in love for the first time with a thud and a clang it made me feel sky high. A heady combination akin to gas and air, red wine and altitude sickness. Food repelled me, so satiating was this new sensation. Concentration was not mine. I had face ache from smiling too much. I was of course the first person to discover this feeling and NOBODY understood.

And of course when he ditched me for an older girl who was altogether more exciting, with raven hair, a flat of her own and a beaten up denim jacket with untold stains that told hair raising stories, well I thought the very core of me was dropping through to my feet, never to be returned again. It hurt. So much. Physically. Ouch.

Thank goodness that pain was never to be repeated. The only good thing to have come from this experience? I am truly empathetic to heartbreak. Come those teenage years I will never, ever, ever tell my sons to ‘get a grip’ in the face of gut wrenching love sickness.

I offer you Love cupcakes. The crunch of the simple, pure chocolate, the softness of the sponge and the surprise caramel centre make these perfect for surprising the one you love. Just make sure they’re worthy of your affections. And beware of raven haired temptresses beginning with the letter S.

One year ago: Obviously good flapjack and Joyful banana, butterscotch and fig traybake

Two years ago: Light and sweet carrot cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Chocolate topped vanilla cupcakes with secret caramel centres

Makes 12

Ingredients:

140g self raising flour
35g ground almonds
175g castor sugar
175g baking margarine/butter
3 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Approx 60g caramel
100g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
Decorations

Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3 and check there’s a rack in the middle of the oven. Then beat the flour, almonds, sugar, marg/butter, eggs and vanilla together until light and creamy. Takes about 4 minutes in a stand mixer. More by hand with a wooden spoon. Divide between 12 cupcakes cases lining your tin and then bake in the centre of the oven until just starting to brown and when a toothpick comes out of the middle cupcake clean. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

When cool take an apple corer and remove the centres of the cakes, being careful not to go all the way down to the bottom. If you accidentally do remove the whole plug of cake then cut a bit off and poke it back into the cake hole. No one will know.

Carefully pour a teaspoon of tinned caramel (or make your own if you fancy it – loads of recipes to be found on the internet) into each hole and then use a toothpick or skewer to poke the caramel down.

It’s so gloopy it may well get stuck on the top so help it along with a poke and a jiggle. And as for leftover caramel… use it to fill a victoria sponge. To make ice-cream sundaes. To make banoffee mini pavs. Or just eat. Or slather it on your hair as a conditioner. I don’t actually know if this last idea works but it might do.

Then melt your chocolate in the microwave or over boiling water, you know what kind of melter you are. Carefully spoon a teaspoon onto each cake, then a little more if the Love Cake can take it. Pop whatever decoration you have on the top and leave to set. Eat with love, with people you love.

Holly November 22, 2012

Fruit loaf with brandy butter icing

Cakes and Bakes, Christmas 4 Replies

A Christmassy cake that doesn’t make your teeth itch from fondant icing, or break them with fondant’s posh Royal sister. An honest fruit loaf, flecked with toasted almonds, a hint of gingerbread and topped with the lightest fluffiest brandy butter inspired icing you ever sunk your teeth into. It doesn’t keep for long, but then it won’t have to.

Ingredients:

– 200g soft butter

– 200g soft dark brown sugar

– 400g self raising flour

– 100g sultanas

– 100g toasted flaked almonds

– 4 large eggs

– 4 tbsp milk

– 2 tbsp gingerbread syrup (if you don’t have it, substitute with more milk and 1 tsp ground ginger and cinnamon)

– 100g soft butter

– 245g icing sugar

– Zest of 1 orange

– 15mls brandy

This recipe makes a monster of a fruit loaf, big enough to fill a tin that measures 25 x 11 x 7cm. If you prefer your cakes on the dainty size then please feel free to halve the quantities. Look how big it is!

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line your loaf tin. Cream 200g butter with the soft brown sugar until creamy looking. Takes about 4 minutes using an electric mixer or about 10 minutes by hand with a wooden spoon. Then add the flour and mix again until you have a dry breadcrumby consistency. Next add the fruit and nuts (which you can substitute for whatever you like but please do toast whatever nuts you add as it makes all the difference to the end result.)

To your very dry looking crumble type mixture add all 4 eggs, the milk and the gingerbread syrup if you have it. Mix well until all combined then smooth into the loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes until a skewer comes out of the centre of the loaf clean. Do check it from 50 minutes onwards though as all ovens are very different. If it looks like it’s browning too quickly on the top but is still raw inside then feel free to fashion a foil hat for the top of the cake to protect it.

Leave to cool on a wire rack. Make the brandy butter icing by creaming 100g soft butter with the zest of an orange and the icing sugar. Once really fluffy (7 mins top speed in a stand mixer or at least 12 minutes with a wooden spoon) add the brandy and mix again.

Spread onto your cooled cake and add any decorations you fancy. Keeps for 5 days in an airtight tin or freezes very well without the icing too.

Holly June 11, 2012

Lemon and almond breakfast rolls

Breads, Cakes and Bakes 22 Replies

Once when I was 3 I walked into a coffee table. Instead of crying and running for a cuddle I hit the table. I think that says a lot about the kind of person I am. So when I found something really hard at work recently, instead of gently and calmly trying to work things out I got really angry with myself and, given the problem was with me, psychologically beat myself up. I draw the line at hitting myself physically.

These little lemon and almond rolls and what I baked after a very bad day. The smell cheered me up instantly. They taste fresh and sweet and a little bit wholesome all in one.

Makes two circles of rolls and a couple of extra singletons.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

– 500g strong white flour

– 7g active dried yeast sachet

– 2 tsp salt

– 1 tsp caster sugar

– 30g very soft butter

– 100mls cold milk (full or semi)

– 100mls cold water

– 100mls boiling water

– zest of one lemon

For the filling:

– zest of 1 lemon

– 4 tbsp demerara sugar

– 2 tbsp ground almonds

– 1 tbsp melted butter

For the topping:

– 1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt

– juice of 1 lemon

– icing sugar (about 150g)

– a handful of flaked almonds

Make the dough by mixing the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and very soft butter together. Then take the milk, cold water and boiling water, mix in one jug and then pour into the dry ingredients. Knead until smooth and elastic then cover with clingfilm and allow to proof for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size and when you push a finger 3cm into the dough, the indent remains.

Whilst the proofing is going on, make the egg wash for the topping by beating an egg with a pinch of salt. Set this aside. Then make the filling by mixing the lemon zest, demerara sugar and the ground almonds. Set this aside too. Melt the butter, use a brush to grease 2 x cake tins and set aside the rest of the butter.

Once the dough has proofed, add the zest of one lemon to the dough and knead again until combined. Then take the dough and fashion into a sausage on a very lightly floured work surface. Then roll out into an oblong measuring about 20cm x 30cm. You may need to pull and squash and tease the dough to do this. Then brush the melted butter over the whole of the slab of dough, then evenly cover it with the filling. Now you need to work quickly as you don’t want the dough to start puffing up and proofing whilst you’re rolling. So roll the dough tightly lengthways so that you have a roll of dough that’s 30cm long. Then use a sharp serrated knife to cut 1cm slices of the roll.

Lay each slice into your cake tin, almost touching each other, with one in the middle. I got 7 in one cake tin, 8 in another and then three little stray ones on a separate tray. See what works with your tray – just make sure they almost touch. Cover with clingfilm and leave to proof for about 40 – 50 minutes until the rolls have doubled in size and are all puffed up and snuggled next to each other. Preheat the oven to 200C after about half an hour of proofing.

Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg wash and then bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown and lemony smelling. This took about 20 minutes in my oven. I took them out of their cake tins towards the end and gave them a quick 5 minute blast baking directly onto the rack. Just to make the underneath really crisp and well-baked.

Once baked remove from the oven, remove from the tins if you haven’t already and cool on a wire rack. Make the icing by mixing icing sugar with the juice of once lemon. Totally up to you how stiff you like the lemon glace icing. I like mine quite thick so spooned it on whilst the rolls were still warm and scattered with some flaked almonds.

These were supposed to be for breakfast but I admit we did eat one each straight from the oven. There’s something really wholesome about lemony baked goods!

Holly March 30, 2012

Easter apostles scone loaf

Cakes and Bakes, Easter, Snacks 24 Replies

There are some things that look better when left to the experts. Haircuts for a start, unless you’re very talented, are best left to people who are well trained in handling a pair of scissors.

Decorating, in my experience, is also best left to the professionals. I still shudder when I recall my attempt at late 90s dappling using a bathroom sponge and a tester paint pot. That Changing Rooms programme has a lot to answer for.

I once had the pleasure of being made up by a professional (cheap client with no budget for extras = Holly plays housewife at a dinner party in the background of an advert) and though sceptical at first, the make up artist in question took years off me, and all without the use of chemicals/injections. The lady was a goddess.

It seems food styling should be left to the professionals too. Look at the picture the food stylist took of my Apostle scone loaf, then if you can bear it, watch the video of the one I made. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyway, the point is that the scone loaf tastes lovely. It really is the taste and smell of Easter. Best eaten fresh with a little butter, maybe some clotted cream or even some marmalade. (Though pretty good toasted for breakfast the next day too.)

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
50g margarine/butter, slightly soft
20g flaked almonds
40g Natural Selection cranberries
10g Natural Selection ginger, finely chopped
40g Natural Selection apricots
50g Natural Selection crimson raisins
150mls whole or semi skimmed milk

Preheat the oven to Gas 7/220C and check the rack is in the centre of the oven. Lightly grease a baking tray with a little butter or margarine. Mix the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and zests in a large bowl. Rub in the margarine or butter with your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir the almonds, cranberries, ginger, apricots and raisins in well so they’re all coated in the flour mixture.

Pour the milk over the mixture and pull together with a blunt table knife. Once combined use your hand to pull the scone together. The less handling the better when making scones so don’t mix or knead vigorously.

Place the scone dough on your tray and shape with your hands into a loaf shape about 1 inch thick. Score the top with a sharp knife, about a quarter of the way down, in a zig-zag fashion to make 11 triangles (one for each Apostle, to break off easily.) Bake immediately for between 20 – 25 minutes until golden all over. Dust with icing sugar if you wish.

Holly March 26, 2012

Mini Simnel cupcakes

Cakes and Bakes, Easter, More 24 Replies

On the whole miniature versions of things don’t do it for me. Half pints. Funsize chocolate. Express massages. Minibreaks. Happy Meals. However, when it comes to cupcake versions of large cakes I make an exception. They tickle me.

It’s your choice whether to adorn with marzipan balls, tiny chocolate eggs or both if you can’t decide. Makes 12.

For the cake:

– 20mls ginger wine

– 25g Natural Selection crimson raisins

– 20g Natural Selection crystallised ginger, finely chopped

– 25g Natural Selection dates, cut into quarters

– 25g Natural Selection apricots

– 100g self-raising flour

– 60g ground almonds

– 100g caster sugar

– 50g dark muscavado sugar

– 150g soft butter/margarine

– 3 large eggs at room temperature

– ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground mixed spice

– 2 tbsp whole/semi skimmed milk

To decorate:

– 150g marzipan

– 3 tbsp apricot jam, sieved

– Either an extra 150g marzipan/a packet of tiny chocolate eggs

– A little icing sugar for rolling/shaping marzipan

Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190C. Place 12 cupcake cases into a tray. Heat the ginger wine in a small pan together with all the dried fruit until the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Place the remaining cake ingredients into a bowl and mix together with an electric handheld mixer until smooth and creamy. Stir in the soaked fruit and then divide between the cupcake cases. Level with your fingers and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 20 minutes until slightly brown, well risen and a toothpick comes out of the centre of the middle cupcakes with clean. Cool out of the tin, on a wire rack.

Once cool, brush a little jam onto each cake and then roll and cut out circles of marzipan (using icing sugar to aid rolling and a round cutter) to place on top. Then either add 11 small balls of marzipan to the top of each cake or 11 tiny chocolate eggs. Fix in place with a dab of jam.

If you fancied watching me chatterbox away about these cupcakes then there’s a little film below to watch. It’s 6 minutes long though. Gosh, I can talk. And no, it’s not my kitchen.

Holly March 20, 2012

Mars chocolate cupcakes

Cakes and Bakes 25 Replies

I almost didn’t bake my own Mother a cake for her birthday. How bad is that? I bake cakes almost every day but after tasting 90 varieties of cake and bread at a charity Bake Off on Saturday I just couldn’t muster the energy or in fact, any love for sugar at all. I thought I was ill. More fatigued in hindsight.

To anyone thinking of ever trying 90 mouthfuls of baked delights in one day I’d advise you to have a seat handy. After the first 20 minutes the sugar hits you and your legs begin to wobble, then you feel a little dizzy, then dry mouthed. You get a second wind though. We all tried every cake or bread. A triumph of cake over common sense.

These Mars chocolate cupcakes are for my Mum’s birthday. They are inspired by the Mars Bar fridge cake she taught me to make as a 5 year old. The very fridge cake that won me a Blue Peter badge. You’ll notice that recipe is absent on the blog. I’ll share almost anything with you, but I draw the line at that.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

2 large eggs at room temperature
80mls milk (semi or whole)
100mls sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
25g ground almonds
25g cocoa powder – the good stuff
125g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 Mars Bars

Preheat your oven to gas 5/190C. Make sure the rack is in the centre of the oven. Pop 12 cupcake cases into a 12 hole tray. Separate the eggs, place the yolks into a jug and add the milk, sunflower oil and vanilla extract. Mix with a fork to break up the eggs.

Weigh out the flour, almonds, cocoa powder, caster sugar and baking powder into a bowl. Stir well until combined then give the jug of oil and milk and yolks a good last whisk with the fork and add to the dry mixture. Beat with a metal spoon until well combined – it will be very wet at this point.

Whisk the egg whites by hand/electric mixer until stiff. Add two tablespoons to the mixture you’ve made and beat in with some force to ‘loosen’ the mixture. This makes it easier to fold in the rest of the egg whites. Then simply fold in the rest of the egg whites using a metal spoon and a slicing action – you don’t want to knock air out of the mixture by beating it with force.

Once the mixture is combined and you can’t see any egg white pour the lot back into the jug and then fill your cupcake cases from the jug. The batter is pretty liquid so I find this the best way to get as much batter into the cases as possible. Fill each case to about halfway and then bake for 15 – 20 minutes until risen and a toothpick comes out of the centre of the middle cake clean. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Pop one of the Mars Bars in the fridge at this point.

Once the cakes are cool, cut the remaining two Mars Bars up into about 6 pieces, place in a bowl and microwave in 10 second bursts (mine took 50 seconds) until molten. Then you need to work fast as the toffee re-sets quickly. Take two teaspoons and with one scoop up a teaspoon of molten Mars Bar, with the other shove it off the first spoon onto the cake. Don’t touch the molten Mars Bar! It’s hot and it hurts.

Once every cake is equally covered in molten Mars Bar, remove the other Mars Bar from the fridge, cut into 12 slices and place on top of each cake. Wiggle the slices down a bit to spread the icing a little. Leave to cool and enjoy with milk.

Holly November 23, 2011

Christmas scones for the Good Food Show

Cakes and Bakes, Christmas 762 Replies

Do you make words up? I do. I call my eldest son ‘Choppington’ and my youngest son ‘Mick-Mack-Moo’ and they crawl about together at bath time doing something I call ‘ruggling’ whilst I sing a slightly abridged version of ‘Let’s Get ready to Rumble’ at them. They also do a lot of ‘scrunching’. We all forget that people from outside Bell Towers know nothing of this language and so often receive quizzical looks when out, ruggling and scrunching about as we do.

So in our house scones are called ‘tassels’ – yes, that’s right – a word that has nothing whatsoever to do with scoooownes or scons or however else you say them. We have bypassed the problem of whether to elongate our vowels by making up a completely original word for them. Well, I say we, when actually it was one of my sons who re-named them. You can use it too if you like, if it helps with the whole scoooownes/scons debate.

Makes: 9 or 10 depending on the size of your cutter

Ingredients:

50g sultanas/raisins
50g cranberries
20mls Armagnac brandy (or any old brandy frankly)
300g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
75g caster sugar
75g cold butter
a good grating of nutmeg
Zest of one tangerine
2 cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150mls whole milk
10mls lemon juice
A handful of flaked almonds
Extra flour for rolling and cutting
1 beaten egg for glazing

Please note: This is an easy way to make scones with minimum time, though, I admit, maximum washing up.

Preheat the oven to Gas 7/220C. Heat the brandy and dried fruit in a small saucepan on a low heat until all the brandy has been absorbed into the fruit – takes a couple of minutes. Set aside to cool. Grind the cloves in a pestle and mortar or if you’re flash, a spice grinder. Add the nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon and give a little stir to combine. Pop this to one side. Take the milk and add the lemon juice, give it a good stir and set aside. This is what I call Almost Buttermilk. Set aside.

Pop the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt, sugar, zest, spices and butter into the food processor and pulse until you have a breadcrumb like consistency. Then tip the breadcrumb mixture into a large bowl, add the boozy dried fruit and add the milk mixture, use a blunt knife to combine, being careful not to over handle. Don’t knead the dough for example, this is not good.

Flour your work surface, pop the dough onto it and roll to about ¾ inch thick. Using a straight edged round cutter, dipped into flour to cut scones out (being careful not to twist the cutter)and place on a baking tray a scone’s width apart. If you try and squeeze them all onto one tray they will steam rather than bake so please don’t do this. Chewy, doughy scones, ergh.

Brush the top of the scones carefully with beaten egg, using a pastry brush, then add scattered almonds (or arrange them into a delightful flower display by pressing down gently,) then brush the almonds again with a little egg being careful not to let the wash dribble down onto the sides of the scones.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, cool a little on a wire rack and enjoy with orange zest spiked whipped cream or simple old butter.

NB: PLEASE be careful that your cloves are ground to a very fine powder. If you don’t do this these ~~tassels~~ scones will be distinctly dentisty in flavour. And a dentisty tassel is a terrible, terrible thing.

Holly October 3, 2011

An alternative to mince pies: Father Christmas’ Bakewell tart

Christmas, Tarts and Pies 49 Replies

I was a late developer on a few fronts. I didn’t kiss a boy until about a year after all my friends. I was terrified of kissing boys. It didn’t matter how many times I practised on my hand or on my Jason Donavon poster, I still didn’t feel properly prepared.

I also believed in the Tooth Fairy (note the capitals please; it’s a mark of respect) until 1988. Which is late compared to my more savvy classmates. As for Father Christmas, well, I think I was 9 when the dreadful news was delivered by my twin buddies. They had an older brother who knew about these things. It was a sad day.

When will I stop being a late developer? I think it’s a perpetual state. As soon as I catch up on one front, another area lets me down. For example, recently I stayed in a hotel with Mr B and found myself, on the morning of check out, stuffing the free biscuits and soap into our suitcase. I actually hid them under some clothes in case I might fall as I left the hotel and expose my booty. We don’t need free biscuits. We especially don’t need free soap as we already have a huge basket of hotel soaps at home. I think I’m stuck in my student years where I used to rejoice in freebies.

This tart is an alternative Christmassy pudding you could serve to guests hot or cold. It’s very filling according to Mr B so he suggests you slice it very thinly. This tart is also a fine alternative offering to Father Christmas if you feel he might be a bit, well, bored of mince pies this year.

This is an enhanced and slightly messed about with version of my regular Bakewell. And I know it’s not really a Bakewell, you can call it a frangipane tart instead if the inproper use of Bakewell offends.

Makes 1 x 20ish cm tart with maybe some pastry scraps to bake separately and munch on.

For the pastry:

250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
125g cold butter cut into cubes
1 large egg

For the frangipane topping:

150g soft butter
150g caster sugar
150g ground almonds
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
320g mince meat, that’s just shy of a regular jar – add the rest to ice-cream
Icing sugar – about 200g
The juice of one fresh lemon
The zest of one tangerine

First make the pastry. Whizz the flour and icing sugar in a food processor (this is my method of sieving) then add the cubes of cold butter and pulse until you have a fine breadcrumb appearance. I always open up the top of the food processor and have a dig about with a knife to make sure there are no lumps of fat hiding near the blade. Then tip the lot into a large bowl and the egg. No need to whisk the egg first.

Take a normal table knife and use to stir the pastry mix until it forms large blobby crumbs. Then use your hand to pull the mixture together. Don’t add water or milk or anything. As long as you’ve used a large egg there’s enough liquid to pull the pastry together. Don’t overwork the pastry – by this I mean don’t madly knead the pastry – just pull it together with your hands until you have a yellow mass, all the same colour and with no bits of flour etc hanging about.) Put the pastry into a plastic bag, wrap tightly and then put in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes – but I often leave it overnight. Lazy old pastry liking a rest and all that.

When you’re ready to bake the tart, roll the pastry out onto a floured work surface (this pastry is pretty well behaved and only needs a little flour for rolling) – I would roll to about 3mm thick as I like a good crust but roll as thick as you like. I can’t bear pastry thickness snobbery. Take your 20ish cm tart tin (mine is loose bottomed for easy removal later) and slip it under the pastry by pulling the pastry up from the work surface. (Of course feel free to transfer the pastry to your tin whichever way you prefer but this is mine.) Push the pastry into the edges of the tin and into the sides then run a rolling pin over the top of the tin. A very quick and easy way to trim the pastry. Pop the tin into the freezer for 15 minutes, preheat the oven to Gas 4, with one shelf in the middle of the oven and make the frangipane whilst you’re waiting.

Take the soft butter and sugar and cream together using a handheld electric mixer/a wooden spoon/a freestanding mixer until lighter in colour than when you started and fluffy. Then take your eggs (and extra yolk) and whisk with a fork – then dribble into the creamed mixture a teaspoon at a time and beat after each addition. I use a freestanding mixer to make my frangipane as it’s so so much easier. Once all the egg has been incorporated then turn the mixer off and add the ground almonds. Then mix the lot with a metal spoon. You don’t need to be gentle but don’t beat the hell out of it either.

Take the pastry out of the freezer and spread a layer of mincemeat on the bottom of the pastry – about 5mm thick. Mine was hard to spread so I gave it a quick blast in the microwave to loosen it a little. Then spoon the frangipane over the top being sure to cover the mincemeat and reach the sides of the tart. If you are using a smaller tart tin you ‘ll find you have too much frangipane – don’t fill the tart all the way to the top of the pastry sides or it’ll spill out over the top during baking. This does not affect the taste in any way of course.

Pop in the oven on the middle shelf (not on a baking sheet please) and bake for 40ish minutes. You’re looking for a golden brown top and pastry that’s neither yellow looking nor dark brown. Watch it like a hawk for the last ten minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

To decorate, just take the lemon juice and add icing sugar until you have a good, thick consistency then grate tangerine zest into it. Stir well and ice your tart when it’s completely cool. (If you are impatient like me and ice when still warm be sure to put straight in the freezer or all the icing will run off the sides.)

A freezer bag is perfect for drizzling icing without getting an icing bag out. Place the bag over a pint glass with one corner pointing down, spoon the icing into it, squeeze into the corner, remove from glass and then snip a tiny bit of said corner off and away you go. Just make sure you snip near the tart to avoid decorating your work top.

I added white chocolate stars to my Bakewell too, because I thought Father Christmas would appreciate this extra festive gesture.

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