Name: Richmond Maids of Honour
Total time: 20 min
Yield: Makes 18 tarts
Ingredients: 200 g / 7 oz prepared puff pastry or rich shortcrust pastry a little flour for rolling out the pastry; 15 g / ½ oz flaked or slivered almonds; 90 g / 3 oz currants; ½ lemon, finely grated zest pinch of ground cinnamon; 3 egg yolks; 175 g / 6 oz curd cheese; 150 ml / 5 fl oz clotted cream; 3 tbs brandy; 30 g / 1 oz caster sugar; pinch of ground nutmeg

Preparation info

Makes
18
tarts

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
20 min

Appears in

Cakes

By Geraldene Holt

Published 2011

About

Two traditional tales are associated with these small cheesecakes. One claims that they were the favourite cakes of Elizabeth I who sent her ladies-in-waiting out of the palace to collect them from a baker in Richmond. The other says that the tarts were so popular with Anne Boleyn when she was maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon that Henry VIII named the cakes after her. Whatever the truth of it, the cakes are a delight.