cherry bakewell slice

cherry bakewell slice

• 15 Jan 2024

I did a deep dive into the pantry at my Father's house and unearthed some cherry conserve. I put my thinking cap on and decided to make a Cherry Bakewell Slice. I'd already bookmarked the Bakewell Bars recipe from Claire Ptak's new cookbook, Love is a Pink Cake, so I set to work adapting it for the only tin I'd brought with me, a 16cm round springform pan.

Some recipes are easy to downsize. This recipe is about 1/3 of the original recipe but when making it, I thought the shortbread layer was a little too generous, so I've reduced the quantity a little.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8-12 slices. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Cherry Bakewell Slice - makes 8 - 12 slices

Base
60g unsalted butter, cold, cubed 
30g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

75g plain flour
pinch salt
100g good-quality cherry jam

Topping
80g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
pinch fine sea salt
1 egg + 1 tbs egg white or milk
50g almond meal (I used a mix of whole almond meal and blanched)
30g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder

Icing

1 tsp melted butter
100g icing sugar

15 mls fresh lemon juice

To decorate
fresh or preserved cherries

 
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 16cm springform tin with baking paper.

Base

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the mixture has just come together into a ball. Press the pastry evenly into the prepared tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, then remove from the oven. Let the base cool for 10 minutes before spreading the jam gently over the top.

Topping

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy but not fluffy. Add the extract, salt, eggs and egg white (or milk), then beat well. Stir in the almond meal, flour and baking powder just to combine. Dollop this over the jam – don’t worry about spreading it evenly as it will melt into place in the oven and spreading it can cause the jam to get mixed in rather than remaining in its own layer. Return to the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden and set. Allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Icing
In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter and icing sugar. Add sufficient lemon juice to make a smooth, thick paste. Spread this glaze over the cooled Bakewell slice, decorate with cherries and then slice into 8-12 pieces.

I found 2 versions of this recipe online, one with icing and one without. I found the icing made the slice a little too sweet so I'm looking forward to trying the second version where the slice is topped with flaked almonds.

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

Bye for now,

Jillian