bakewell tart traybake,

I had a little fun with this bake.  Found on page 96 of Merry Berrys 100 cakes and bakes

As usual things go missing or I find I don't always have the exact thing needed. In this case my tin was a little small but no problem.  Jam wise, I used what we had left over from the swiss roll. 

started off preheating oven to 180c/fan160c/gas4
for the pastry
175g plain flour
85g hard butter from the fridge

rub these together with your finger tips until it looks like a cross between breadcrumbs and crumble.  Then bind together with 1-2 tablespoons of cold water until it comes together in a ball leaving the bowl clean.
Reminds me of making shortcrust at school and having out hands checked to make sure it was only our fingertips coated in flour and not any on our palms.  Cardinal sin you know :o/

Roll out on a lightly floured board and line a 12 x 9 inch tin with the pastry.  Now as well as not having a tin big enough I had lost my rolling pin and had to use a wine bottle.  Rolling pin has since turned up.  This makes me happy as although I bought a new one my rolling pin is one I grew up with in our house so I feel it works better as more experienced and full of lovely feelings by now.  OK maybe not, but I feel better handling that one

bit of pressing down and was time to start with the sponge. recipe calls for
115 g softened butter
115g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
1level tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk ( got mine out in advance so it was room temp so not to curdle sponge mix)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (upped mine to 1 tsp as a few people said theirs wasn't as strong tasting as it could of been)

spread the pastry with 4 tablespoons of cherry jam or jam of your choice.

Put all your sponge mix ingredients into a bowl and mix together for 2 minutes.  I used an electric hand whisk for this job.  For a little extra I took 100g of roughly chopped dark plain chocolate and stirred this into the mix just before putting in the tin

As said previously, one of my sons has a slight aversion to nuts so the chocolate was sort of as a substitute idea.  It also meant I only sprinkled half the top of the sponge with flaked almonds 

After baking for 25 minutes, the sponge should be shrinking away from the edges of the tin and be springing back in centre when gently pushed, it was time to take the bake out of the oven.

Then I had to rush out to spend an afternoon with daughter, younger son and granddaughter.  Was probably for the best though as don't think this would of got to cool down before eating if I was left in house with it. 

The chocolate for us was a stroke of genius.  It really did lift the tart to another dimension with the dark chocolate lifting the tart sweet jam more into the limelight somehow.