These Bakewell Muffins are made with almond and cherry, just like the Bakewell Tart which provided the inspiration. Get the recipe below.
Traditional British Puddings
One of my favourite treats of all time is the humble Bakewell Tart! Most would say it’s a heritage dish that can’t be improved...or can it...?
A traditional Bakewell Tart is made up of shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and a sponge filling with almonds. This shouldn't be confused with the Bakewell Pudding which is made with flaky pastry, a layer of jam and an egg and almond filling.
In my opinion the best Bakewell Tarts come topped with fondant icing and a glace cherry on top! But, the key to both of these dishes is the use of almonds.
How to make Bakewell Muffins
This recipe for Bakewell Muffins takes the best of the classic British pudding and transforms it into a muffin. The muffin batter uses Greek yogurt, egg and melted butter for the wet ingredients and ground almonds, flour and the raising agents as the dry ingredients. These are folded together to make a thick, lumpy batter that wraps around the fresh cherries.
Ingredients for Bakewell Muffins
Along with egg, butter and flour there are a few slightly more unusual ingredients in this muffin mix.
Ground almonds are an excellent ingredient to bake with giving an extra rich flavour and a moistness that can’t be achieved using flour alone, so I decided to incorporate them into a muffin sponge, but where there’s almonds, there must be cherries and glace icing!
Yogurt is used in the mix as an alternative to buttermilk which you often find in American muffin recipes. But this is a British muffin! Yogurt (or buttermilk) is added for flavour, counteracting some of the sweetness of the sugar. It's also used to make sure the muffin is light, fluffy and moist. I like to use Greek yogurt so that it doesn't impart conflicting flavour and it's really rich. But, plain yogurt would also work.
I’m a big fan of glace cherries! I know they barely resemble the real deal, but the’re so sweet and sticky what’s not to love? I like to make this recipe with fresh cherries where I can but they can be expensive. If, like me, you love glace cherries then go ahead and use them in the batter instead. You can also choose whether to top the muffins with a fresh cherry or a glace cherry.
The recipe
Bakewell Muffins
Ingredients
- 150 g golden caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 125 g butter melted
- 175 ml Greek yogurt
- 200 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 100 g ground almonds
- 250 g cherries pitted and halved
- 10 tablespoon Jam
- 200 ml glace icing
Instructions
- Firstly pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 and line muffins tins with pretty muffin cases.
- In a large bowl whisk up the egg then stir in the sugar, butter, and yogurt.
- Once fully combined tip in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder and fold. The mixture should be a little lumpy. If the batter is too thick add a splash of milk!
- Place a large tablespoon of the batter into the muffin cases and then place a large teaspoon of jam in the middle.
- Top with another large tablespoon of the batter so that the jam is kept in the middle of the cake.
- Put the muffins into an oven for 20mins on gas mark 5 or until golden on top! Leave to cool on a wire rack before decorating.
- To decorate mix up some thick glace icing and spoon over the muffins.
- While still wet place half a cherry on top, just like a bakewell tart!
Nutrition
Make it vegan
Did you know that with a just few swaps you can make this recipe vegan. That means it will be suitable for anyone following a plant based diet or who has an egg or dairy allergy. It's simple:
- replace the butter with a vegan butter or margarine.
- replace the egg with commercial egg replace (these are usually in powder form, just follow the instructions on the packet).
- replace the Greek yogurt with a soya or coconut alternative.
For more information about how to make my cake recipes suitable for a plant based diet, check out the big vegan baking guide.
More recipes using cherries
More cake recipes
For more delicious cake and muffin recipes, check out the baking recipe archive.
craig paton says
I know that this post is from 2012 but I wanted to thank you for this excellent recipe. These are fabulous and I've already baked two batches in just over a week! I used to buy Bakewell muffins in a shop and they were wonderful but they stopped seeling them - probably because they were £1 each and so not much demand! So I've been thinking about trying to replicate them. If anything - these are even slightly better! Many thanks for the excellent recipe. Craig
Emma Walton says
I am so glad you love these! They are one of my favourite muffin recipes and I still regularly make them. Enjoy!!!