Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bakewell Tart... er... Pudding


The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.



I was at first very excited about this challenge because it involved the preparation of three layers of desserts I'd never prepared (frangipane/Victoria Sponge, homemade jam, shortbread pastry dough), and it was a dessert I'd never had or heard of. After thinking about each layer later on, my excitement waned because I thought that the dessert would be boring and lacking in flavour/flavor. Every time I ached to make a dessert, my eyes would glaze over the assigned Bakewell Tart/Pudding to some other "more appetizing" dessert. After I finally had given in and made the Bakewell Tart/Pudding, however, I regretted delaying the process for so long. The tarts/puddings were so good.

Since I live alone, I halved the recipe and prepared them in small, individual tart pans. Also, I'm not a fan of nuts, so I made half the recipe of a Queen Victoria Sponge Cake as the top layer instead of the frangipane. I also made homemade strawberry jam and blueberry jam for the middle layer to make two different tarts/puddings. I made the shortbread crust a day before making the entire tart/pudding. The crust was very similar to making regular pie crust.

All layers were very easy to make and quick to come together. My only problem was getting the sponge cake to cook throughout. In both varieties of tarts/puddings, the cake layers came out very brown on top but were not fully cooked on the bottom of its layer. I'm assuming they came out like that because of the jam layer. Nevertheless, both tarts/puddings were very good. I preferred the blueberry one out of the two.

Thanks for this challenge; it was fun!

9 comments:

  1. Wonderful effort and I LOVED these tarts and good to hear you like them also. Clear pixs maybe the oven was too hot and overbaked the top and undercooked the sponge cake. I did the sponge also and the frangipane and they tasted almost the same. Cheers.

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  2. I quite liked these tarts too. I was surprised that something that sounded so simple could really taste so good! Your little tarts looks great despite the issues with the sponge.

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  3. You think you're something, dontcha? Wow, you actually made strawberry and blueberry jam! Girl, you rock! Keep up the good work and I look forward to sinking my teeth into some of your delicious pastries!

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  4. Wonderful! You've done a fabulous job for this month challenge.

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  5. Great job with your homemade jams! I hadn't heard of this before either, and I'm so glad I know about it now!

    Thanks for teaching me how to say casatiello by the way! I really appreciate it!

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  6. i'm unfamiliar with this, but it looks like it would be good

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  7. The tart looks fantastic, but I would so so so love some of your homemade jams. They are probably so delicious!

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  8. Great job on your challenge! :D It looks wonderful!

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