My Cherry bakewell blondies are a contemporary fruity twist, combining two much loved bakes in one teatime treat and more than one spoonful of Rodda’s clotted cream!

From a very small child I have always loved cherry bakewells, and growing up have many memories of enjoying them around the kitchen table with my family for tea. My affection for them is just as strong today, in every guise and size! In fact the popularity of some of my recent re-creations of them made me think of this collaboration to celebrate Afternoon Tea Week and my own collaboration with Rodda’s clotted cream and Cornishware.

Championing the Rodda’s golden crust, that sits on top of their clotted cream, I have added a spoonful (with the remaining clotted cream in the tub, being used to serve) of it to the blondie mixture. Together with golden caster sugar and syrup to really enhance the golden look and taste of the bake. Alongside the golden crust of the iconic cherry bakewell, it’s red and white colour way is reflected in Cornishware’s own iconic stripy red and white tea set, a collection I love as much as the bake itself. Especially if served alongside their equally loved blue and white collection of pieces-much like the mix of cherry bakewell blondie sizes!

Once baked the blondies ‘golden crust’ core is temporarily removed and filled with jam, before being replaced and covered with both golden marzipan, fondant icing and iconic glace cherry. Thus recreating the impression of a cherry bakewell, but with the traditional shortcrust pastry edge being made up from the blondies golden crust. With bonus Rodda’s golden crust twist. Delicious in its own right but extra special enjoyed with extra servings of clotted cream. Both big and small-bakewells and spoonfuls!

Makes 6 normal and 12 mini sized

Ingredients

50g butter, roughly chopped

100g golden caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp Rodda’s golden crust topped clotted cream (plus extra to serve)

100g white chocolate, chopped into small pieces

1 tsp almond extract

1 medium/large egg

100g plain flour

To decorate

100g cherry or berry jam

100g golden marzipan

100g white fondant

100g glace cherries

To serve

1 tub of Rodda’s clotted cream

Equipment

6 hole and 12 hole mini silicone cupcake moulds

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and place your silicone moulds on a flat baking trays.
• To make the blondies, put the butter, sugar and syrup and in a small saucepan. Set it over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Take the saucepan off the heat and add a heaped tablespoon of clotted cream, chopped chocolate and the almond extract. Leave the clotted cream and chocolate for a few minutes to melt in the pan, before transferring to a bowl to cool.
• Once cooled use a hand-held whisk to beat the egg into the mixture until thick and velvety.
• Sift over the flour and gently fold in, until just combined.
• Transfer the mixture into a disposable piping bag to make filling the silicone moulds easier. I also find using a silicone spatula really helps to both fold in the flour and transfer the mixture into the piping bag, ensuring every last bit of mixture is scraped clean from the bowl. To fill your piping bag it helps to placed it over a large tall glass, jug or my favourite a cornish ware storage jar. Fold the edges of the bag over the top of the jar, glass etc and fill with your blondie mixture.
• Once you’re piping bag is filled, twist the bag to close up before cutting off 1/2cm from the pointed end and carefully fill your silicone moulds, you’re looking at filling each cupcake hole to just over half way up.
• Bake for approx 10-15 minutes for the mini blondies and 15-20 minutes for the normal sized ones until golden, fairly firm to the touch, but a skewer inserted into the centre comes out a little sticky. Transfer the moulds on to a cooling rack and leave the blondies to cool completely in the moulds before removing.
• To assemble your cherry bakewell blondies, use a small sharp knife to remove the core and central ‘golden crust’ of each blondie. The ideal diameter of the cut out pieces is 2cm for the mini blondies and 4cm for the larger ones the ideal depth just under 1cm. You don’t want to go right through to the base, but more create a hollow core. Once removed set the golden crusts aside and trim off a few mm’s from the base-these trimming are tasty off cuts to enjoy as you put your bakewells together!
• Spoon some jam into the middle of the holes of each blondie. Return the trimmed cut-out golden crusts to the jam filled cores and press down gently but firmly. Some the jam may escape up the sides. If this does happen use a small paintbrush to paint over the top of the golden crust to act as your glaze and ‘edible glue’ to adhere the marzipan and fondant too. If you get a clean finish, use some of the jam or glace cherry syrup to paint a little glaze over the golden cut out crusts.
• To create these marzipan and fondant tops, roll your marzipan out on to a sheet of parchment paper to a few mm’s thickness.
• Next take your fondant and roll out over the top to create a sandwich layer of the two. If you find your marzipan/fondant sticking to your rolling pin it can help to place another sheet of parchment over the surface before before rolling out. Take a 5cm round cutter and cut out 6 circles followed by 12 mini ones, using a 3cm round cutter. Peel back the marzipan and fondant, leaving the cut out circles in place. Remove the circles with the aid of a small palette knife and carefully place these circles on top of your blondies, using your fingers to smooth over the surface. Finally cut your glace cherries on the parchment you used to roll out your icing. For the larger bakewell, cut a whole cherry in half placing a half in the centre of each icing topped blondie. Use the remaining cherries to cut out mini glace cherry pieces and place in the middle of each mini bakewell.
• Enjoy served with the remaining Rodda’s golden crust topped clotted cream.