Racing Bakes: British Bakewell
For the 70th anniversary of F1, we stay in Britain and, with it, we have another gloriously British bake(well), with a difference
For the second time this season, and only the second time in history, Formula 1 has stayed put and has 2 races in a row at the same circuit.
And where better to officially celebrate the 70th anniversary of the sport than the place it all began - Silverstone?
A beautiful english racetrack on a super special occasion deserves a suitably English bake, so this week we are making my version of a cherry bakewell.
Rather than shortcrust, I have gone with my choux like base (it's just better) and I have replaced the raspberry jam with cherry. The beautiful star of the show, frangipane, stays though, so we can still call it a classic! There are a tonne of ways you can decorate it, too.
Happy Birthday, Formula 1!
My take on a British classic
Ingredients
- 4 eggs (3 separated, one whole and beaten)
- 295g unsalted butter
- 295g caster sugar
- 130g ground almonds
- A glug (about 1 teaspoon) almond extract
- About 3 tablespoons of cherry jam (homemade or smooth shop bought)
- 225g self raising flour
- 150g icing sugar and food colouring - both optional
Instructions
The base
- Preheat the oven to 170C (fan) and butter a large flan tin
- Heat 170g of the butter and 170g of the caster sugar in a pan till fully melted, then add the flour and the 3 egg yolks and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon till smooth and coming away from the sides of the pan (it will look like it's not going to come together but persevere!)
- Bake the base for 10 mins. It won't be ready but it will give it a start so the base isn't soggy after the main bake.
The filling
- Melt the rest of the butter in a pan and, when it's fully melted, take it of the heat.
- Stir in the rest of the caster sugar and then the ground almond, beaten whole egg, and almond extract.
- Stir till fully combined, it won't completely smooth out.
Bringing it together
- When the base is out, prick it all around the centre with a fork so it deflates a little (it will all have risen together so this will make a depression in the middle for the filling.) Turn the oven up to 180 at this point.
- You can add the jam now, it's best if you warm it to a pouring consistency (microwave is fine) and spread it over the base. There is the option to skip this step and add the jam, decoratively, after the whole thing is assembled - it's entirely down to preference. If you plan to ice the top, you need the jam under the frangipane, as it won't rise with it on top and your icing won't be flat.
- Pour in the frangipane and flatten it over the whole depression in the middle of the base. If you're getting fancy with the jam, do so now!
- Bake at 180 for around 35 mins. The middle of the frangipane should have a slight wobble to it when you take it out, the residual heat will sort this out but if you leave it in till the wobble is gone, you've overdone it!
Icing (optional)
- Add water to the icing sugar so that it is thick and runny. You can add a little dash of almond extract too, to bump up the flavour.
- You can colour the whole lot if you like or you can separate a little out and colour that to make something fancy over the white
- Pour the icing sugar over the *fully cooled!!* frangipane
- If you are feathering or anything, you'll need to work while all the icing is still wet. Pipe coloured stripes across the white icing then drag a knife or a toothpick through then, perpendicular to the stripes, in alternating directions, wiping the knife/toothpick after every drag. Check out the image to see how it should look!
Recipe Notes
If you are leaving the icing out and have nude frangipane, you can add flaked almonds before if goes in the oven, for a bit of texture. Of course you can use the traditional raspberry jam and shortcrust base, this is just sweet and delicious.
Recipe by
Me!
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