| Maids of honour tart | |
| Region: | Surrey |
| Type: | Tart |
| Main Ingredient: | Puff pastry, Cheese curds |
Maids of honour tart (also known as maids of honour cake[1] and Richmond maids of honour) is a traditional English baked tart consisting of a puff pastry shell filled with cheese curds. A variation is to add jam or almonds and nutmeg.[2] Traditionally the tart was a puff pastry filled with sweetened milk curds.[3]
The tart is said to date back to King Henry VIII[4] [5] when he witnessed some of the Queen's Maids of honour eating some cakes and demanded to taste one.[6] He found them delicious and named them after the maids. Some even claim that the maid who made the tarts was imprisoned and had to produce them solely for the King.[7] However, there is another theory that they were named after Anne Boleyn, a maid of honour at the time, who made the cakes for Henry VIII.[8]
A tea room in Kew, south-west London, "The Original Maids of Honour", dates back to the 18th century and was set up specifically to sell these tarts.[1]