Maid Of Honours Tarts recipe by Jamie Oliver in Richmond Surrey on Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast episode 3

This week Jamie and Jimmy revive another historic British treat, the Maid Of Honours Tart.

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Maid Of Honours Tarts dates back to the days of Henry VIII. It has been said that the Maid who invented the cake was imprisoned by the king and ordered to produce the delectable tarts solely for King Henry and his royal household. We can’t be sure if this is true or not, but the cakes are deliciously sweet and yet slightly savoury and require a careful balance of the finest ingredients and the lightest hand to make.

Jamie and his mate Jimmy Doherty visited the Original Maids of Honour bakers in Richmond in Surrey where the Maids Of Honour cake has been baked for over a 150 years, to try their tarts baked to a secret Original Maids of Honour recipe. However, Jamie decided to bake a few versions of his own using various spices.

However, before Jamie and Jimmy got down to work, they visited the 92 year old Gilly Newens, the previous owner of the bakery as well as Hampton Court to meet Marc Meltonville to find out more about the history of the tart.