A Bakewell Tart from Brissie

We had a day trip to Warwick, Queensland, for the Knitting and Jazz Festival,  and intended to try out the local cuisine.  Our first stop was at a cafe called Mussels which incorporated a bakery, Mamma Lucia's,  for a cup of coffee and one of the very large range of cakes. 

Unfortunately, we had to wait and wait and wait and wait.....  I know they had an unusually large number of customers due to the Jazz and Jumpers Festival, but the wait was incredible, and there was no apology for the wait.  The pastry on our choice was not worth the wait - a bit chewy. 

 

We were intending to come back for lunch, but the poor service and the sight of the simply enormous plates of fried parmigiana and chips put us off.

Later on, when we tried to find a nice place for lunch, all the other cafes seemed to have long waiting times.  We ended up having Asian food in the food court.  Passable, if oily. 

 

The Jazz and Jumpers Festival didn't appear to have considered the fact that the town couldn't cater for feeding the visitors.  Pity.

In another trip, we stopped for a very late lunch at Café 109 in Dunkeld, Victoria.  They apologised for only being only being able to offer 2 types of soups, a range of  baked pies, pasties and sausage rolls, or quiches, as well as a large range of cakes and biscuits.  How nice to find somewhere in a fairly remote location which actually doesn't get flummoxed if you are late for lunch and offers you a range of choices.  We opted for the minestrone soup with toasted cheese on bread

 

and followed up with lemon meringue pie and chocolate biscuit.

All very nice indeed, with lovely service to boot..  A few restaurants I have been to lately could learn from them.

We also went to a birthday party in Mt. Gambier, South Australia, where lucky Mr. One Year Old had this very cute cake:

Apart from that, we have done a lot of home cooking:

(Steak and onions)

 

 

(Grilled lamb and burritos)

 

(Beef, vegetable and noodle soup)

(Asian mushrooms and rice)

 

(Spaghetti marinara)

 

(Apple cake)

 

and this week's recipe:

 

Bakewell tart

 

(disclaimer:  this is nothing like the tarts I had in Bakewell, England.  It is my interpretation - a tribute)

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 packet sweet short crust pastry

125g butter

125g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond essence

3 eggs

125g ground almonds

raspberry jam

30g flaked almonds

 

Method:

 

Grease a pie dish and line with pastry.  Place a sheet of baking paper on the pastry, pour dried beans or rice on top and bake at 190 degrees for 10 minutes.  Remove paper and beans and bake another 10 minutes or until gold.  Cool slightly, then spread jam on the base of the tart shell.

 

Use an electric mixer to beat butter, sugar and essences until light and fluffy.  Beat eggs in one at a time.  Stir in ground almonds.

 

Spread mixture over jam, then sprinkle the top with flaked almonds.

 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the mixture is risen and brown

 

Dust with icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature, with cream if preferred.