I recently got myself these really cute little mini 8cm loose bottomed flan tins, I have used them to make an assortment of savoury flans and quiches.  I had a request for some cherry bakewells and thought these little tins would be perfect for the job!

If you don’t have mini flan tins, one large will do the job just as well or a bun tray will be perfect too.

This recipe will make about 8 tartlets

You will need:

Pastry:

• 115g Butter
• 100g Caster sugar
• 1 Egg
• 250g Plain flour

Filling:

• Your favourite jam, I use my homemade strawberry jam

Sponge:

• 170g Caster Sugar
• 170g Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 85g Ground almonds
• 85g Self raising flour
• ½ tsp Almond essence
• ½ tsp Baking powder

Icing:

• 5tbsp Icing sugar
• 1tbsp Water
• 4 Glace cherries

Pastry:

• Grease the tins and pre heat the oven to 170degrees.
• Combine the butter and sugar with an electric whisk.
• Add the egg and mix well.
• Sieve in the flour and mix with a fork until it comes together into a ball of dough.
• Chill for one hour before using.
• Flour the surface and rolling pin, roll out the pastry until even and about ½ cm thick.
• Cut out circles with a pastry cutter a little bigger than the mini flan tins.
• Push the circles of pastry gently into the mini flan tins trim off any excess and ‘blind bake’ for 5mins
• Allow to cool slightly leave the pastry shells in the tins

Filling:

• Spread half a tablespoon of jam on the base of the blind baked pastry cases.
• If you over do the jam it will bubble up the sides of the sponge whilst cooking and look a little messy

Sponge:

• Cream the butter and sugar together.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Fold in the ground almonds, almond essence, flour and baking powder until thoroughly mixed.
• Spoon the cake mixture into the pastry cases filling them just shy of the top of the pastry case and making sure the mixture is spread evenly to the edges; this will also help stop the jam bubbling up during the cooking process.
• Bake for 15-20 mins at 170degrees.
• Allow to cool completely.

Icing:

• Mix the icing sugar with the water to a paste, if it is to thick for spreading add a splash more water – but not too much or you will need more icing sugar!
• Spread evenly onto each bakewell tart and top with half a cherry.