Wild Blackberry Bakewell Tarts
I've been trying to inject a little fun into our rather dreary staff meetings at work over recent months and what better way to cheer people up than homemade cake? Back in May we combined cake eating with charity fund raising for the Art Fund and this time, at the request of a colleague, we turned the meeting into a Macmillan coffee morning. As an early morning commuter I needed something quick and easy to make on week day night, light and robust to survive a train journey and cheap enough to fit in with my thrifty eating plans. After a quick scout around Macmillan's celebrity recipes for inspiration, these mini Bakewell Tarts caught my eye. I normally have pastry somewhere in my freezer and I always have eggs, lemons and ground almonds in the house and who doesn't like a Bakewell Tart?
To add a little seasonality I decided to use blackberries instead of cherries (and also because they are free!). I have plenty of homemade blackberry jam (on my last few jars from last September) and each tart has a hidden teaspoon full in the base. These were very easy to make and looked daintily pretty. The pastry shell protected them on their journey and the berries themselves remained un-squashed, as they cemented rather well in the icing. I will be making these again with other combinations for the seasons, maybe an orange version with marmalade for Christmas.
My colleagues surpassed themselves with their cake baking efforts and we had Anzac biscuits, apple cakes, brownies, carrot cake and caramel cupcakes as well as my tarts. Macmillan send you a brilliant free pack to help your fund raising including a table cloth and labels plus a couple of cake and coffee related games. Altogether we raised £65 for the charity and not a cake was wasted. I have to say that I'm finding this fundraising rather fun. The official day for the coffee morning is 26 September so there is still time to sign up if you fancy joining in to help raise some money for this valued charity.
To add a little seasonality I decided to use blackberries instead of cherries (and also because they are free!). I have plenty of homemade blackberry jam (on my last few jars from last September) and each tart has a hidden teaspoon full in the base. These were very easy to make and looked daintily pretty. The pastry shell protected them on their journey and the berries themselves remained un-squashed, as they cemented rather well in the icing. I will be making these again with other combinations for the seasons, maybe an orange version with marmalade for Christmas.
My colleagues surpassed themselves with their cake baking efforts and we had Anzac biscuits, apple cakes, brownies, carrot cake and caramel cupcakes as well as my tarts. Macmillan send you a brilliant free pack to help your fund raising including a table cloth and labels plus a couple of cake and coffee related games. Altogether we raised £65 for the charity and not a cake was wasted. I have to say that I'm finding this fundraising rather fun. The official day for the coffee morning is 26 September so there is still time to sign up if you fancy joining in to help raise some money for this valued charity.
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