My dear departed granddad used to love cherry cake with lashings of real butter and a cup of hot sweet tea. For years my gran used to make these delicious cherry cakes and it’s something that always brings me back to my childhood at home on a Sunday. Lately I have been feeling very nostalgic so I decided to give this cake a go for myself. To be honest I was really proud of my efforts and the rest of the family loved it too. However, my gran had the final word – she liked the taste but deemed it unworthy of the blog!
The reason being was because that most of the cherries had sunk to the bottom. She gave me some very valuable advice and armed with this I made the recipe again. Once again the pesky cherries refused to rise to the top. My mistake this time was that I used self raising flour instead of plain…amateur mistake. I made the cake yesterday for a third time and third time lucky, as you can see. I have included a few of my gran’s top tips in this recipe, so hopefully your cake will have good cherry distribution like this one.
Here’s how:
– 8 oz of butter at room temperature
– 8 oz of castor sugar
– 4 large eggs lightly beaten
– 8 oz of plain flour
– 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
– 9 oz of glace cherries cut into quarters
– 4 oz of ground almonds
– a few drops of almond essence
– 1 level tablespoons of demerara sugar
– 1 tablespoon milk
I got this recipe from Delia Smith. Begin by lining an 8 inch (20 cm) in diameter and 4 inches (10 cm) deep cake tin. Line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper and then grease the paper with butter. A good way of doing this is to cut a rough circle, larger than the size of the tin. Then fold the circle in half, then in half, and then in half again. Place this triangle into the tin and cut off the excess, then when you open the circle it should fit snugly inside the tin. To make the sides I usually cut a long thin piece of baking paper, butter the tin and then stick the paper into the tin. Next paint the paper with melted butter. Trust me it’s easy when you do it yourself and there is something kind of rewarding about it.
* Gran’s Top Tip. Quarter the glace cherries, and then rinse them in a bowl of clean water. Place the washed cherries onto a sheet of kitchen roll and dry well. Once they are well dried, scatter some flour onto the cherries and then remove any excess flour by placing them in a sieve and shake off the extra flour. It sounds like a lot of extra work but this really separates the cherries and makes sure they don’t all stick together and sink to the bottom.
Next preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Either by hand using a wooden spoon or with a hand mixer, cream the soft butter with the castor sugar until the mixture becomes light and creamy. Gradually beat in the beaten eggs. On a separate plate sift the flour and baking powder together. Next, fold the flour into the butter and egg mix. Use a slotted spoon and fold in a figure of eight motion to keep all the air intact.
Finally add in the cherries along with the ground almonds and almond essence. Carefully fold them in along with the tablespoon of milk. Pour the mix into your prepared baking tin. Smooth over the top, and then sprinkle the Demerara sugar over the top. (Delia uses 2 tablespoons but I found this too sweet, so reduced it to one).
Place the cake in the centre of the preheated oven and cook for one hour. After an hour, cover with tin foil and cook for a further thirty minutes. Cool the cake for fifteen minutes then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
