Iced Cherry Bakewell Recipe

You know when you fancy something sweet but also a little nutty at the same time?  Well that’s where a good iced cherry Bakewell recipe comes in!  This combination of the sweetness of icing and cherries with the nuttiness of almond essence is the ideal combination.  And it isn’t as difficult to make as you might think!

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What are glace cherries?

Glace cherries are also known as candied cherries.  They are made by taking maraschino cherries and adding them to a sugar syrup.  This means they are sweeter than normal with just a touch of bitterness and are sticky. 

Often if you are baking with them, it can be worth rinsing them off before cooking to reduce the sugar content.  But if they are decorating the top of the cake as we are doing here, then don’t worry so much.

The classic Bakewell tart

The classic Bakewell tart is a British dessert that takes a shortcrust pastry case and adds jam, frangipane and tops it with flakes of almonds.  It is named for a town in Derbyshire in England, where it was originally known as a Bakewell pudding.

There are also a few different variations.  The Lancashire tart is where there is a layer of almond-flavoured fondant on the top of the cake and just the odd cherry.  But for me, a cake isn’t a cake without icing and therefore our favourite is the Cherry Bakewell, which adds a layer of icing on top with the cherries mounted into this.

Recipe tips

Strawberry jam is the standard in our house.  Traditional cherry Bakewell’s will often use a plum jam, but we went with what we had and what we like.  If you want to go more traditional, try the plum or alternatively raspberry jam.

For this recipe, we used fondant icing sugar.  This is a little different to normal icing sugar (or powdered sugar if you are in the US) because it contains glucose syrup that makes it glossy when it dried and is easier to get a smooth finish.  You just mix it with water the same as normal icing sugar but watch it can get quite runny and spill off the edge of the cake if you make it with too much water – so add it slowly!

Yield: 8 portions

Iced Cherry Bakewell recipe

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

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• 1 sheet shortcrust pastry
• 1 tbsp strawberry jam
• 60 g margarine
• 60 g caster sugar
• 1/2 lemon (juiced)
• 1 egg
• 110 g ground almonds
• 3 drops almond essence
• 60 g self raising flour
• 60 g fondant icing sugar
• Glace cherries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a 20cm (8 inch) flan dish with the shortcrust pastry. Spread the jam onto the base.
2. Mix the margarine and caster sugar then add the lemon juice and egg. Fold in the almonds and flour then spread the mixture in the pastry case.
   
3. Bake until a skewer comes out clean, around 25 minutes.
   
4. Mix the icing sugar with water until suitable for icing. Spread over the cake and add the glace cherries
   

Notes

You could also use apricot or even cherry jam in the base of the cake, we just prefer strawberry.  We also use fondant icing rather than normal icing as it stays a little more moist.

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