Bakewell tart

This traditional crowd-pleaser started life as a spin-off from the luxurious Bakewell pudding,says food historian

- Neil Buttery

Bakewell tart is one of our most beloved teatime treats, but it doesn't have the long history you might expect. The story starts in Bakewell, nestled in the Derbyshire Peak District, where Bakewell puddings were made and sold from around the 1830s. This precursor to our tart is a rich affair, invented to attract well-to-do visitors to its teashops: a puff pastry case spread with jam and filled with a mix of melted butter, sugar, eggs and ground almonds, a sort of luxuriant buttery custard.

The Bakewell tart was conjured up around 1900 as an economical alternative to the pudding: shortcrust replaced puff pastry and the custard was swapped for frangipane. A runaway success, the tart quickly usurped the pudding, so it's no surprise food manufacturers picked it up. Mr. Kipling sold cherry Bakewell tarts from the 1970s, but exchanged the frangipane for a cheap sponge covered with a sickly layer of icing; a shadow of its former self.

How to make it