Russian Tart

This one is so old, dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
Why it is called Russian, I have no clue but I love it and make it whenever I have leftovers. It’s a real leftover – don’t – weigh – anything recipe.

Oven 200c/GM7 for the pastry

Time 10 mins prep, 20 mins bake, 30 mins fridge
You will need a sandwich cake tin, flan tin or ovenproof dish

Ingredients

• Old cake stale, no cream or as little as possible
• A pot of jam
• Icing sugar probably about 200 g
• Water
• Batch of shortcrust pastry or a pack of ready rolled

Method

• Make a batch of pastry and roll it out to fit your tin.
• Don’t make it too thick and if you have some left you can freeze it or keep wrapped in the fridge for up to 3 days.
• Stab the base with a fork a few times and then put a piece of baking parchment over it lightly.
• Cover that with baking beans or something similar to weigh it down (rice, dried lentils, kidney beans etc)
• Bake in the middle of the oven for at least 20 minutes.
• Once baked, remove the baking parchment.
• You can keep the rice etc for next time you blind bake, store in a bag or pot once cold.
• Crumble the cake into chunks and crumbs in a bowl and add enough jam to bring it all together, usually about 1/2 a pot
• Once the pastry is cold, fill it with the cake mix, press it down with the back of a spoon and put it back in the fridge for about 30 minutes
• Make up the flood icing by adding small amounts of water to the icing sugar until you have a fluid but not wet icing.
• Pour it over the cake and spread it gently to cover it completely. Cover in sprinkles if you want to.
• Fridge until ready to serve and the icing has hardened a bit.

Pricing

If you make your own pastry it works out about 68p for the whole thing, if you buy your pastry, probably about £1.20 as you won’t use the entire roll

You can add crushed pecans or sultanas to it, halved cherries, whatever is on your baking shelf.