mincemeat cake

Still got jars of mincemeat left over from Christmas and have no idea what to do with them? Bake this cake. It tastes like mincemeat pies but it's a cake, therefore even better!

It's so good that I baked it twice within a week yet only managed to take one measley photo of it. With my phone, not even a proper camera. It was that tasty.

Apologies for the brief post, I had a different first post planned for 2018 but thought I'd sneak this mini one in first. The cake was too good to delay sharing.

Mincemeat cake

Recipe from Tea Time Treats by the National Trust

150g (5oz) softened butter

150g (5oz) soft brown sugar (I did half dark, half light)

225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 jar of mincemeat, roughly 450g (1lb) - mine was slightly less and it turned out fine
75g (3oz) sultanas
2 eggs, beaten

handful of flaked almonds, 25-50g (1-2oz)

Preheat the oven to Gas 3/160C/140C Fan. Grease and line a 20cm/ 8" deep round cake tin. Measure all the ingredients, excluding the flaked almonds, into a large bowl and mix with a mixer until well combined. Pour into the cake tin and scatter the flaked almonds on top. Bake for 1hr 45 mins until firm and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (it will still be a little sticky though as it contains fruit.) Leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a cooling rack.

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.