Ingredients
1 packet of frozen cherries - usually 500g  
110g sugar 
50g butter 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
1 cinnamon stick 
1 star anise 
6 cardamom pods, bashed 
1 x 375g packet of ready rolled puff pastry 

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water

Equipment needed 
Frying pan that will work both on your hob and in your oven. 

Method
Take a pan that you can use on your hob and put into your oven and use the pan as a template for your puff pastry, the cut out pastry needs to be just a few cm bigger than the pan as you are going to tuck it in.  Put the pastry back into the fridge. 

Put all ingredients bar the puff pastry and egg into the pan on a medium high heat and cook until the butter melts, stirring from time to time. Cook for 3 minutes so that the sauce has time to bubble and go a little sticky.  Remove from heat. 

Leave to cool for a minimum of 15 minutes. You need the pan and cherries to not be so hot that the butter in the pastry melts as you put it on.

When you are ready to cook preheat the oven to 180c. Take your chilled puff pastry and put it over the top of your cherries and, using a spoon ‘tuck’ the pastry down the sides of the pan.  Egg wash the top of the pastry and cook for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is puffed and deep golden. 

Remove the tarte from the oven and leave to one side for 5-10 minutes.

To turn out, take a butter knife and run it around the edge of the pan, unsticking any pastry that has stuck. Next, take your hand and spread out your fingers and put carefully on the top of the pastry. Carefully but firmly, twist your hand so that the pastry turns. If it won’t turn, find out where it is stuck, unstick carefully with your knife and try to turn again.

Take a serving dish or plate and firmly put on to the top of your pan. You need to quickly and confidently turn the dish and plate over so that the plate is now on the bottom and the pan on the top. When you remove the pan your pastry should now be at the bottom of the plate and the cherries and juices on the top. Serve with cream or ice cream.