treacle and vanilla salt tart

treacle and vanilla salt tart

16 Feb 2026

I have some shortcrust pastry in my freezer, leftover from other baking projects. As I don't like to waste food I've been looking at tart recipes both online and in my recipe books. Many of the recipes I found seemed to be riffs on the classic British treacle tart. As I've never had treacle tart before I thought I better make one first.

There are so many treacle tart recipes out there but I liked the sound of Heston Blumenthal's recipe. The recipe wasn't very clearly written though and made a huge tart. I've made a few Michael James recipes in the past and they're pretty reliable so when I discovered this Michael James recipe, which looked similar to Heston's, that's the recipe I decided to use. 

I used my leftover pastry but I've linked to the original recipe if you'd like to make Michael's pastry recipe. You'll need to start this recipe the day before serving as the filling gets an overnight sleep. The vanilla salt and the pastry can be made ahead of time and the tart case can be pre-baked.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 18-cm tart. For a larger tart please refer to the linked recipe. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Treacle and vanilla salt tart - makes an 18-cm tart

Almond shortcrust pastry

45g icing sugar

25g almond meal

200g plain flour

pinch salt

110g cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg

cold water, if needed

Treacle filling

1 egg 

20g thick cream

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

227g golden syrup 

45g unsalted butter

45g sourdough breadcrumbs

3 tsp lemon rind

35mls lemon juice

Vanilla salt

½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped

1 tsp sea salt

To serve 

clotted cream or crème fraîche, 

Shortcrust pastry

Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. 

You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make an 18-cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Treacle filling 

Whisk together the egg, cream and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside. 

Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, leave it until it starts to brown – you will know it’s ready when it stops spitting and bubbling, and produces a wonderful nutty aroma. This means the water has evaporated and it’s close to burning. Strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids, and weigh 30g into a medium sized bowl.

Add the golden syrup to the butter and mix to combine. Stir this into the egg mixture, then add the breadcrumbs, followed by the lemon zest and juice, stirring well between each addition. Chill the mixture in the fridge overnight to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb all the liquid.

Day of baking

On a lightly floured bench, roll the pastry out into a large disc, 4mm thick. Lightly grease a 18-cm round tart tin with butter, and gently lay the pastry over it. Press the pastry firmly into the base of the tin. Trim the excess with a knife, then place the tart shell in the fridge to rest for an hour. Retain the excess pastry to patch the tart should cracks form as it bakes.

Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Line the rested pastry case with baking paper or foil and fill with dried beans, rice or baking weights. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake the tart shell for a further 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin and patch any cracks that have formed with some of the excess pastry.

Vanilla salt

Rub the vanilla seeds and sea salt together. You will have more than you need, but it keeps for ages in a small jar, so you can save it for later.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 155°C, fan forced/175°C, conventional. Take the breadcrumb mix out of the fridge. It will have separated slightly, so mix it with a spoon until it comes back together then pour it into a jug.

Place the tart shell on a flat tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray in the oven, then gently pour in the treacle mixture. Fill the pastry case to just below the rim, as it will expand a bit in the oven. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until just set. The filling should be just firm on the edges and have a bit of wobble in the centre, like a jelly.

Place the tart on a wire rack to cool, then remove the tart from the tin and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the top with the vanilla salt, and serve with a dollop of clotted cream or crème fraîche, if desired.

I was expecting a somewhat bland tart so I was surprised by the intensity of the lemon flavour. Next time I'd use less lemon rind and perhaps a little less juice. The filling is quite sweet so I think the cream or crème fraîche toppings are necessary, not optional extras. Now I can't wait to make the other tarts. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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little queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge cake

little queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge cake

9 Feb 2026

February 14 was always a special day in our household, not because it was Valentine's Day but because it was my Grandma Edie's birthday. Grandma and I would go shopping together and for a treat we would have morning tea in the McDonnell and East cafe, secreted in the Ladies Department and we always had a slice of sponge cake usually topped with passionfruit and cream. Grandma is long gone but in honour of her birthday, I thought I'd bake her a cake and of course it had to be a sponge cake. 

Nadine Ingram is the owner of Flour and Stone, a cult Sydney bakery. Last year I borrowed a copy of Love Crumbs, her second book, from the library. The cakes all looked lovely, but many of the recipes were very complicated with multiple steps or required hard to find ingredients. 'Little Queenie' caught my eye because at it's heart it's a sponge cake filled with berries and cream. Honestly, is there a better cake partnership than that? Little Queenie does require some special ingredients such as freeze dried strawberries, pink peppercorns and hibiscus flowers. Freeze dried strawberries are sold in my local supermarket but the pink peppercorns and hibiscus flowers used to flavour the strawberry compote are not. In the end I found and purchased them both online. 

Here's the recipe for you, written in Nadine's inimitable style, which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a towering 20-cm cake, then double the ingredients for the cake and you'll need 50% more of the compote, filling and decorations. 

Little Queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge
Buttermilk sponge
3 eggs, separated
90g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
75g plain flour
15g cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
12g unsalted butter
50ml buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla paste

Strawberry compote
¾ tbs dried mint
Scant ½ tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
4 cardamom pods, cracked
65g caster sugar
1 lemon, zested
3 dried hibiscus petals
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
250g ripe strawberries, hulled

Mascarpone filling
50g room temperature cream cheese

100g mascarpone
125g cream
60g Greek yoghurt
40g caster sugar
¾ tsp vanilla paste

To decorate
1 fresh egg white 
6 mint sprigs
50g caster sugar
½ tbs crushed cardamom pods

15g freeze dried strawberries

1 tsp cracked pink peppercorns 

5 dried hibiscus petals

Buttermilk sponge
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line 2 x 17 cm cake tins with baking paper and set them aside. I prepare all the ingredients before I start whipping the eggs for the sponge, that way, folding the sponge can happen swiftly and there is no delay in putting the sponge in the oven.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, but don't start whipping just yet. The egg yolks can be set to one side in a small bowl next to the stand mixer, just give them a little whisk with a fork for now. Combine the caster sugar with the cream of tartar in a small bowl and set beside the mixer. Sift the flours and baking powder together twice then set them to one side, being sure to leave the sieve nearby also.

Melt the butter in a saucepan then turn off the heat. Add the buttermilk and vanilla paste, allowing them to warm slightly in the residual heat of the pan.

Now you can whip the egg whites. Begin on high speed to create volume until you see soft ribbons starting to form, then reduce the speed to medium. Gradually add the sugar mixture to the meringue, 1 tablespoon at a time, leaving 10 seconds between each addition until all the sugar has been incorporated. Beat the meringue for a further 1 minute to allow the sugar to dissolve fully and create a more stable meringue base for the sponge. This will ultimately contribute to the height and fluffiness of the finished sponge, so be patient here.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and, while still beating, trickle the egg yolks directly into the bowl, scraping the last of the egg yolk out with a spatula. Increase the speed to medium until you can see that all the egg yolk has combined with the meringue. This will take no longer than 10 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a spatula, make a couple of folds through the meringue, scraping all the way to the bottom of the bowl to ensure the eggs are fully incorporated. 

Sift half the flour evenly over the top of the sponge and fold through gently until all the flour is combined, then sift in the remaining flour and fold it through. Add approximately 1/3 cup of sponge batter to the saucepan with the buttermilk mixture, then gently fold them together using a spatula. This will create a fluffy cloud of buttermilk. Then fold the buttermilk cloud back through the sponge until everything is well combined and hopefully still lovely and fluffy.

Divide the sponge between the prepared tins and smooth the tops ever so slightly with a palette knife. Place the tins immediately into the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check the sponges at 18 minutes; they will be ready when the middle springs back slightly when pressed with your finger. Remove the tins from the oven and allow them to sit for only 2 minutes before slipping the sponges out onto wire cooling racks. This step prevents the sponges from shrinking around the edges.

Strawberry compote
Locate a deep baking tray in preparation for roasting the strawberries. While the sponges are cooling, combine the mint, peppercorns and cardamom together in a bowl. I find the most effective way to do this is in a spice grinder, but you could also use a pestle and mortar. Add this to the sugar along with the lemon zest, hibiscus petals and the seeds from the vanilla bean. Toss the strawberries in a large bowl with the sugar mixture and spread evenly over the base of the baking tray. Add the scraped vanilla bean and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, giving the tray a little shake halfway through to distribute the syrup. Remove the strawberries from the oven and allow to cool in the tray.

Mascarpone filling
Place the room temperature cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Swap the attachment to the whisk and add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Beat everything together to combine. Using a spatula, scrape down to the bottom of the bowl to check that all the cream cheese has been incorporated, then give one final whip until the cream is thick and fluffy. Remove the bowl from the mixer and set to one side.

To decorate
Lightly whisk the egg white, then brush the mint sprigs with a little egg white on both sides. Toss the leaves in the caster sugar and sprinkle with ground cardamom then place onto a baking paper lined plate. Leave out on the counter for the mint to dry then store in an airtight container. 

To assemble
Place one sponge onto your chosen serving platter, then spread half the mascarpone filling evenly over the top of the sponge all the way to the edges, or use a piping bag fitted with a #11 plain nozzle. Press half the strawberries from the compote into the surface of the filling bearing in mind that when you put the other sponge on top, the strawberries shouldn't protrude too high and prevent the sponge from sitting flat. Spoon some of the roasting syrup over the strawberries and trickle a little over the sides. Place the second sponge on top, then spread the sponge with the remaining mascarpone filling and remaining strawberries. Add the dried strawberries, hibiscus petals and mint, then finish with a few twists of cracked pink peppercorns.

This sponge, as with all sponges, should be eaten on the day it is baked. The filling and the strawberries can be prepared the day before, but the sponge must be baked the same day you are celebrating. There is no journey so arduous that a sponge should suffer being baked yesterday for.

We followed Nadine's advice and ate the sponge cake the day it was baked and the cake was a triumph!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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sour cherry and pistachio scrolls

sour cherry and pistachio scrolls

2 Feb 2026

Sour cherries and pistachios are a match made in heaven and feature in Honey and Co's delicious fitzrovia bun recipe. I recently bought a copy of Helen Goh's book, Baking and The Meaning of Life and in the book is a recipe for pistachio and sour cherry scrolls filled with pistachio paste.

I have a huge bottle of pistachio paste in my cupboard and I've been looking for ways to use it. Inspired by the photo in Helen's book, I made my own version. My bun dough is an adaptation of Sarah Kieffer's recipe from the Vanilla Bean Blog. Her pillowy soft cinnamon rolls recipe is so good I see no reason to ever use another recipe. The lemon cheese cream cheese icing recipe is one I developed some time ago.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6-8 scrolls. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Sour cherry and pistachio scrolls - makes 6-8 scrolls

Dough
1¼ tsp dried yeast

140 mls milk, lukewarm
30 mls honey
1 room temperature egg 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
60g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
75g sour cherries, roughly chopped if they are large

Filling
175g pistachio paste

To finish
2 tbs melted butter or cream

Lemon cream cheese icing

30g unsalted butter, room temperature 
60g cream cheese, room temperature 
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
Pinch salt
1 tsp lemon rind
120g (1 cup) icing sugar, sifted 
1-2 tbs roughly chopped pistachios

Dough 
Grease a large bowl and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and honey in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5-10 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. Mix for about 5 minutes then with the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, for about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to the prepared bowl. The dough will be very sticky and you will need a spatula to scrape the dough into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Add the sour cherries to the bowl and gently press into the dough with your finger tips. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the bowl with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

To Assemble
Flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature. Line a tray with baking paper and set to one side. 

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to form a 42cm x 30cm rectangle. Spread the pistachio paste evenly out onto the dough leaving a 1 cm border all around then roll up firmly from the long edge. Using a very sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut the dough into 6-8 scrolls. 

Set the rolls on a baking tray covered with baking paper, about 5 cm apart, cover with a cloth and leave the rolls to rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Just before baking, brush each roll with some melted butter or cream. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes on the centre rack or until the rolls are golden brown, internal temperature has reached 90°C, rotating the pan halfway through. While the rolls are baking, prepare the lemon icing.

Icing
Place the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, salt and lemon rind into a medium size bowl. Using a hand beater, mix on medium until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar and mix on low until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on medium until the icing is light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. 

Remove the scrolls from the oven and leave to stand for about 10 minutes before spooning the icing over the top and sprinkling with chopped pistachios. Allow the buns to cool for about 30 minutes, then gently tear them apart to serve.

I was really tired the day I made the scrolls so every scroll was a slightly different size but once slathered with icing no-one could tell. I had my scroll while it was still warm and it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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zurich

zurich

30 Jan 2026

I flew into Zurich because of its proximity to Freiburg, where the conference I attended was held, so of course it made sense to fly home from there. An old friend of mine lives in Zurich so we were able to catch up while I was in town.

When I visit Zurich I often stay at the same hotel, located close to the Opera House, the lake and the Stadelhofen Railway Station. It makes getting to the airport a breeze.

Don't let the sunshine fool you. I was in Zurich for 2 days and the first morning of my stay was bright and sunny then it rained solidly for the rest of my stay.

I'd bought a Zurich card at the Airport so I tried to use as much public transport and visit as many museums and attractions as I could visit during my short stay. My first destination was the Kunsthaus Zürich.

I decided to walk there past the lake and the Grossmünster.

It was a Sunday so the shops were all closed but there were plenty of people out and about.

I arrived a little bit early so I walked around the exterior of the art gallery.

Autumn had arrived so the trees were losing their leaves.

There was artwork both inside and outside the gallery.

It had been a few years since my last visit and a new wing had been built joined to the existing building by an underpass.

The new building itself is a work of art.

The Kunsthaus Zürich is filled with art treasures.

I walked across the bridge to the Fraumünster Church to see the Chagall windows.

The windows are beautiful but too difficult to capture on a cloudy day.

I retraced my steps back to the Grossmünster because I had a tower to climb.

The 187 stairs were a bit of a challenge and I was glad when I finally reached the top. The views were worth the climb.

The next day the weather took a turn for the worse, think driving rain, swirling winds and inside out umbrellas, so I took very few photos.

I did brave the rain and returned to the Fraumünster Church to see the cloisters, which are closed on Sundays.

The peaceful cloister and it's beautiful murals.

A black and white image from a previous visit to Zurich when my film camera worked.

My last photos of a sodden Zurich.

I spent the afternoon in the teeny tiny Beyer Watch and Clock Museum. It was very busy so I waited in the rain for quite some time before I could enter. Although tiny, it's full of treasures and it was a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.

They're my last images from my trip to Europe and North Africa. I guess that means its time to arrange my next holiday.

See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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