I came across these delicious muffins in a blog post from Cooking With Craic a couple of months ago. The author, a Canadian living in Ireland, had fallen in love with the popular Irish pastries, and had developed a delicious recipe. She says,

The bakewell. You can find these at most bakeries around the country. They consist of shortcrust pastry bottoms, jammy middles and Madeira sponge tops.

I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to make these, and yesterday I finally found the perfect timing. I had planned an easy dinner: throw a slab of meat on the grill for an hour, toss some yams into the oven, make a salad, warm some sourdough bread. Done. And Valentine’s Day seemed as good a time as any to make a sweet treat. So while the meat was cooking, I rolled out some of the Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Pie Crust that I’d had conveniently waiting in the freezer, whipped up a Madeira sponge batter (I’d never heard of it before this recipe, but I’m very happy to have experienced it), and popped the buns in the oven just as the meat was coming out. We sampled some after dinner and saved the rest for today’s breakfast. I’m thinking they’d be best for brunch or for a mid-afternoon snack, not so much as dessert. So yummy! Here are some pictures:

Circles to line the cupcake tins

Piecrust bottoms

Raspberry-cherry jam filling, made last year from our own fruit

Topped with Madeira sponge batter

Irish Bakewell Buns!

Absolutely delicious.

You can read the recipe here.