Bakewell Tart

I loved traveling when I was single. I loved traveling with my husband just after we were married.

“Get your traveling in now, because you won’t be able to do it once you have kids.”

I heard this statement many times while my husband and I were backpacking around the world. And, sadly, the more I heard these words, the more I started to believe them to the point that when our eldest son was born, we resigned ourselves to the idea that family and travel don’t mix.

But soon after that, I just went and impulsively booked a flight to Rome. We wanted to prove that the idea we had internalized was wrong and that our days of travel didn’t have to stop.


And oh how glad I am we did so.


I’d be lying if I said traveling with a baby is easy. It’s not. But it wasn’t as daunting as we thought it would be.

It’s true, you won’t be able to travel the way you did before kids, but that doesn’t mean you have to exchange travel for family, and vice versa. You can do both, but you must change your expectations and accept that your travels will be different.

For example, you'll need to plan your visits around naps or meals, you'd need to identify where the local playgrounds and parks are, you'd need to slow down your days. But that will give you the opportunity of discovering the world from a completely different perspective. You'll rediscover the world through your children's eyes.

Don’t be one of those people that gets to the end of their life and wishes they had done this or done that. Don’t get to the end of your life and wished you’d done something special and unique with your kids when you could have.

This week we are travelling to Barcelona and I can't wait!! I bet playing in Gaudi's Park will be a whole different experience! Watch this space :)


WHAT YOU NEED

70gr butter
100gr sugar
150gr ground almonds
4 free-range eggs
1 lime, zest and juice
1tbsp Port Wine
Strawberry or Raspberry Jam
Flaked almonds and icing sugar, for sprinkling
Glace Cherries, to decorate

1 All butter shortcrust pastry roll

WHAT YOU DO

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Unroll the pastry and line a tart tin with trimming off any excess. Prick the base with a fork, then cover the pastry lightly with some baking parchment. Cover the parchment with baking beans or uncooked rice and place into the oven to bake blind for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and remove the baking beans or rice and the baking parchment and set aside to cool.

Reduce the oven temperature to 175C.

Meanwhile, for the filling, mix the eggs with the sugar in a mix bowl until thoroughly combined. Add the melted butter, lime zest and juice and mix again.

Finally add the ground almonds and Port wine.

When the pastry has cooled spread a generous layer of your favourite jam onto the pastry base.

Pour the filling mixture over the raspberry jam to fill the pastry case.

Sprinkle some icing sugar and top with flaked almonds and glace cherries, then bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the filling is baked through and golden-brown all over.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Serve warm or cold.