Welcoming spring with a Bakewell Tart

Spring is finally here! And with spring comes warm sunshine, flowers, picnics, and yard games!

An excellent idea to bring something nice and tasty to a picnic is a Bakewell tart. Simple in preparation, this dessert has the flexibility of many variations, as you can give them the classic almond topping or include a twist of your own with seasonal fruits. In addition, it is a light dessert that can be shared with the family.

A Bakewell tart is an English tea cake named after the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire, England. The dessert dates to the 1860s and features a combination of a pastry shell, jam, and an almond-flavored sponge or cream. Bakewell tarts are often called Bakewell puddings, but the two desserts are essentially the same.

The legend behind the Bakewell tart is believed to be a myth, but it remains a popular explanation. As the story goes, a customer ordered a strawberry tart from Mrs. Greaves, a landlady and cook at the White Horse Inn in Bakewell. The busy landlady ordered a new kitchen assistant to prepare the dessert. Instead of mixing the strawberry jam into the filling, the cook forgot them and, at the last minute, spread the jam on the bottom of the puff pastry dough and topped it with the cream filling.

Local history also claims that the Bakewell tart has a secret ingredient known only to one person. Before her death, Mrs. Greaves supposedly left mysterious instructions to a local man named Mr. Radford, who in turn passed the recipe on to a Mr. Bloomer. Coincidentally, the Bloomer family runs a bakery in Bakewell that sells Bakewell cakes and puddings.

No doubt we must be thankful for this confusion because the result is a delicious tart, suited for adults and little ones!

Because the confection of these tarts includes a light layer of jam along with the dough, it is interesting to make variations depending on your preferred flavors. The original recipe calls for raspberry jam. However, in my case, I used what I had available at home, which was strawberry and apricot jam.

I believe I got a lovely product. The crust had a delicious and nice crunchy texture, and the filling of jam punched the almond cake. I decided to use fresh fruit to decorate the tarts, giving them a nice touch.