Fresh Cherry Cakes

Two reasons for baking another cake immediately after my last week’s extravaganza.  1st , hubby dear bought 1 Kg of fresh red cherries and wanted me to make something special. 2nd Mum’s hosting a kitty party this week and wants me to bake her something unusual.
If it had not been for my mum, then my instincts say I would have made either a crumble with cherries or a cherry cup cake.
So coming back to the fresh cherry cake, after all the research and in consultation with mum, I zeroed in on the following recipe. It is largely influenced by Diana’s almond cherry cake. I will try to point out the differences, which are more in the technique than the quantity of the ingredients.
Almond Cherry Cake

Ingredients
1 heaped cup of Maida
½ cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup of blanched almonds (Whole almonds with skin removed)
1 tspn baking powder
3 eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk
2 cups of fresh pitted cherries

Method
1)      I first blanched the almonds at home, due to which they were slightly moist. I roasted them in the oven (when I was preheating the oven)
2)      I then put them in a mixie to make a granular powder. I took out about 3 tspn of the almond powder out and set aside. I then made a fine powder of the remaining almonds.
3)      In a glass bowl, cream the butter on high speed using a hand blender.
4)      Add the sugar and continue blending.
5)      Add the eggs one at a time and keep blending until the mixture is light and fluffy.
6)      Now add the almond powder to the egg mixture and fold it in
7)      In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder.
8)      Add the flour to the egg mixture along with the vanilla essence. Add milk if you find the mixture to be dry. I did add 2 tbsp of milk
9)      Now , line the cake tin  ( I used a hexagonal tin) with butter paper. Pour the cake mixture in it.
10)  On the edges put the granular almond mixture for a crusty look.
11)  Top the cake with cherries while pushing some inside the cake and leaving some on the top.
12)  Bake for 45 min at 180 degrees preheated oven. It takes around 45 minutes to cook till the core. Leave for additional 5 minutes to be sure. Check with skewer at the centre.

The taste of the cake was yum, the cherries are a fantastic surprise as they are not sweet as is the case with most fruit cakes. They leave a nice crunch in the mouth.
Since, the original recipe asked for 2 ½ cups of cherries , I had more cherries left with me after making the above cake. So I decided to make another smaller cake with the cherries.

This time I used my own recipe.
Ingredients
2 cup of Maida
1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 tspn baking powder
½ tspn baking soda
2 eggs
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar ( I  added 1/4th cup extra for the cherries)
1 tspn vanilla essence
4 tbsp milk
½  cups of fresh pitted cherries
Method
1)      In a glass bowl, cream the butter on high speed using a hand blender.
2)      Add the sugar and continue blending.
3)      Add the eggs one at a time and keep blending until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4)      In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda.
5)      Add the flour to the egg mixture along with the vanilla essence. Add milk and beat the mixture.
6)      Now , line the cake tin  ( I used a hexagonal tin) with butter paper. Pour the cake mixture in it.
7)      Top the cake with cherries while pushing some inside the cake and leaving some on the top.
8)      Bake for 45 min at 180 degrees preheated oven. It takes around 45 minutes to cook till the core. Leave for additional 5 minutes to be sure. Check with skewer at the centre.



Cherry Cake

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