My favourite flavour is almond

Foodies100 have challenged bloggers to share a story or memory of their favourite flavour. The Schwartz Flavour Forecast has inspired me to tell you that my favourite flavour is of almonds. I’m not bothered about the texture of the nuts one way or the other. But I absolutely love almond flavoured cakes and marzipan even more.

I have happy memories from childhood of my mum buying Mr Kipling bakewell slices and battenberg cake. And Christmas tea was one of my favourite parts of Christmas, as not only did we have a Christmas cake, but my Gran would always make a cherry cake topped with a thick layer of marzipan.

My husband is not keen on the flavour of almond, but luckily my boys have taken after me and both like the flavour, so I have an excuse to bake almond flavoured goodies. I posted my fruit and almond cake recipe a few months ago. And now I’m sharing my bakewell tart recipe, which my boys and I enjoy. Although I do cheat by using a ready baked pastry case. Okay almonds are not a Schwartz flavour, but my recipe does have a pinch of mixed spice.

Bakewell Tart

Ingredients

1 sweet pastry case
2 tbsp raspberry jam
75g margarine
75g sugar
2 large eggs
50g self raising flour
few drops of almond essence
50g ground almonds
pinch of mixed spice

Method

Leave pastry case in foil tray and place on baking sheet.
Spread jam over base of pastry case.
Cream margarine and sugar.
Beat in the eggs.
Sieve and fold in the flour.
Add almond essence and mixed spice.
Fold in the ground almonds.
Spoon mixture over the jam.
Cook in preheated fan oven at 160deg for 30 – 40 minutes until golden.
Cool on wire rack.
Serve and enjoy.

Bakewell tart

And at Christmas time, my boys love making homemade treats for their grandparents. So two of the things we always make are marzipan stuffed dates and marzipan fruit petit fours.

Making marzipan apples

You can share your own flavour stories via the Flavour of Together Schwartz website or Facebook page. For every story shared on Schwartz’s website and Facebook page or any of McCormick’s websites or social channels, Schwartz and McCormick together will donate $1, up to $1.25 million to United Way and their partners’ organisations. In the UK, Schwartz will support Focus on Food, a charitable food education programme and partner of United Way Worldwide, that champions cooking as an essential ingredient for healthy, happy lifestyles.

This post is an entry into the Foodies100/Schwartz Flavour of Together challenge.