the almost doomed mini mincemeat frangipane tarts

a.k.a. why it's not a good idea to bake using an electric oven during a thunder and lightning storm.

There has been a lot of annoying power blips this week due to thunder and lightning. I *just* got a tray of these tarts out the oven before lightning suddenly struck again and knocked off the power for a minute. Thank goodness it didn't strike 5-10 minutes earlier.

I wrapped up the rest of my filling and pastry and put in the fridge to finish baking tonight. I'm assuming/hoping the frangipane will be fine to use once it's back at room temperature. Just in case the rest of my batch is doomed, I quickly photographed these this afternoon in a rare glimpse of sunlight.

I knew I had to try these tarts after seeing them on Sophie's blog, the Cake Hunter last week. The only change I made was using a regular sized bun tray instead of a muffin tray just to keep my tarts cute and dainty.

My Dad in particular loved these and said they were the best mincemeat pies he's ever eaten. He even went as far as saying he'd buy all the ingredients again for me to make a second batch. High praise indeed.

If you like Christmas flavours and bakewell tarts then you're in for a real treat when you make these. They're like festive cherry bakewells! I don't know if I can go back to making mince pies without frangipane as it works so well.  These will definitely be reappearing this Christmas.