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Ingredients
For the base
250g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
125g butter, cold and cubed
For the filling
200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
4 Waitrose British Blacktail Free Range Eggs large
125g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract, to taste
½ x 340g jar morello cherry preserve
For the topping
300g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp lemon juice
10 Cooks’ Ingredients Glacé Cherries, halved
50g toasted flaked almonds
Method
Make the base. Put the flour into a large
bowl with the butter. Use your fingertips to
rub them together until the mix resembles fine
breadcrumbs. Add 3-5 tbsp cold water, 1 tbsp
at a time, stirring well with a round-bladed knife
after each addition until the mixture begins to
clump together. Squeeze into a ball.
Lightly flour the work surface and roll the
pastry into a rectangle large enough to line
the base and sides of a 23x33x3cm baking tin
Press in the pastry, making sure there are no
holes. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200ºC, gas mark 6. Prick
the pastry all over with a fork, then line with
baking parchment and fill with baking beans (or
uncooked rice or lentils). Bake for 15 minutes,
then remove the parchment and baking beans
and bake for 5 minutes more, until pale golden.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Beat together
the butter and sugar in a large bowl using an
electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat
in the eggs 1 at a time, making sure each egg is
fully incorporated before adding the next. Add
the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and
almond extract before giving everything a final
beat until smooth.
Turn the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. Spread
the jam over the pastry base in an even layer,
then top with dollops of cake mixture and
spread out with a palette knife. Don’t worry
if the cake mixture doesn’t completely cover
the sides of the pastry. It will amalgamate in
the oven.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cake is
risen and golden and a skewer inserted into
the centre comes out clean. Run a palette knife
around the edge to stop any of the sponge
from sticking, then cool completely in the tin.
Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and
2-3 tbsp cold water to make a thick icing. Don’t
be tempted to make it too runny – you want it
to set as a thick opaque layer. Invert the cooled
cake onto a board, then turn the right way up
and spread with the icing.
Space the cherries evenly on top, allowing for
1 cherry per slice when cut into 20 pieces later.
Sprinkle with flaked almonds, then leave to set
for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
Cook’s tip
The pastry base makes this traybake robust and easy to transport, but if you don’t have time to make it from scratch, use 375g from a 500g Jus-Rol Shortcrust Pastry Block instead.
Cherry has a natural affinity with almond, as they both carry a linked flavour compound that means they blend together beautifully. Raspberry also pairs well with almond, so substitute the cherry jam for raspberry if you prefer.
This recipe can easily be made gluten free. Use a 400g pack of frozen glutenfree shortcrust pastry, defrosted (I used Sue’s Gluten-Free Kitchen Pastry Block) instead of the shortcrust pastry, and replace the flour with FreeFrom Self Raising Flour. Make sure you use a gluten-free baking powder too – it is very short, making it trickier to roll, so you may need to do more patching. Don’t worry if holes appear during the blind baking, as the filling will hold it all together during cooking.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy
1,623kJ/ 388kcals
Fat
20g
Saturated Fat
9.7g
Carbohydrates
46g
Sugars
32g
Fibre
1.1g
Protein
6g
Salt
0.3g
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