Bakewell Tart

For this classic, you want to achieve perfectly cooked pastry and a delicious, spongy frangipane filling with a level, nicely golden surface plus some beautifully feathered icing.

Serves 12

For the jam

200g raspberries

250g jam sugar

For the sweet shortcrust pastry:

225g plain flour

150g chilled butter

25g icing sugar

1 large egg, beaten

2 tbsp cold water

For the filling:

150g butter, softened

150g caster sugar

150g ground almonds

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp almond extract

For the icing:

300g icing sugar

1 tsp almond extract

3 tbsp water

pink food colouring gel

For the jam, place the raspberries in a small deep-sided saucepan and crush them with a masher. Add the sugar and bring to the boil over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into a shallow container. Leave to cool and chill to set.

To make the pastry, measure the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the icing sugar. Add the egg and water, mixing to form soft dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface and use to line a 23cm fluted flan tin. Leave in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Line the pastry case with non-stick baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 15 minutes, then remove the beans and paper and cook for a further 5 minutes to dry out the base.

For the filling, spread the base of the flan with 4 tbsp of raspberry jam. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the ground almonds, egg and almond extract and mix together. Spoon the mixture into the pastry case and level out with a palette knife.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and bake for 25 – 35 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre, comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool.

For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in the almond extract and cold water to make a smooth, fairly thick icing.

Place 3 tbsp of the icing in a separate bowl and add the pink food colouring gel to make a raspberry coloured icing. Spoon the icing into a small piping bag fitted with a no. 2 plain nozzle.

When the tart has cooled, spoon the icing on top, spreading evenly. Pipe parallel lines of pink icing over the white icing, then drag a cocktail stick through the line to create a feathered effect. Leave to set.

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