It was my birthday on the 8th January and I had such a wonderful day and was spoilt rotten. Hubby and I have been together coming up for 9 years this year and he has always taken the day off for my birthday so that we can spend the day together and do something lovely. For my 40th we went to the Maldives, we have also been to fancy restaurants, the theatre, lots of lovely and exciting places, but the day always starts with breakfast in bed.
Breakfast in bed is always my favourite breakfast of doughnut toast covered in gorgeous berries, an espresso, fresh orange juice and of course a glass of bubbly! This year I really wanted to go to the Ardingly Antiques and Collectors Fair, so off we went for a few bargains, I brought some lovely vintage fabric to make cushion covers with and a huge bowl to plant all my orchids in. Then lunch in a lovely pub which is part of one of our favourite chains of restaurants and then home for the family to come over and enjoy some cake.
For a while now I have lost my baking mojo, it has been replaced with refurbishing gorgeous old pieces of furniture, embroidery, knitting and sewing gorgeous cushions, bunting and hearts for our home. This year I struggled to even decide on what sort of cake I wanted, I have just gone off of cake !!!
In the end I decided on something simple and came up with this yummy cherry cake. I just dusted it with icing sugar but it would be just as lovely drizzled in water icing and decorated with cherries and flaked almonds. The recipe suggested using a normal round tin, I used my bundt tin as it looks so pretty, but it would work just as well in a loaf tin. The recipe also suggests to quarter the cherries, I just halved mine as I love cherries and prefer to get big chunks of them rather than playing hunt the cherry.
This is quite a firm cake, similar to a Madeira and it is perfect anytime of the day but lovely served with a cup of tea in the afternoon whilst nattering to a friend. It is quick and simple to bake and lovely to make on a Friday so you have cake ready and waiting over the weekend, in our case perfect to have on the return from a very long country walk with the dog.
Buon appetito
200g glacé cherries
175g block butter, at room temperature
175g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, whisked lightly
175g plain flour
½ level teaspoon baking powder
75g ground almonds
a few drops almond extract
1 dessertspoon milk
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4
You will also need an 18cm round cake tin, buttered and with base and sides lined
Begin by preparing the cherries. If they’re dripping in syrup, pat them dry with kitchen paper, then slice each one into four. For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until light, pale and fluffy. Now gradually beat in the whisked eggs a little at a time.
Then sift the flour and baking powder together, and carefully fold this into the creamed mixture using a metal spoon. Toss two thirds of the cherries together with the ground almonds and carefully fold these into the cake, adding one or two drops of almond extract and the milk.
Now spoon the cake mix into the prepared tin, level off the top with the back of a spoon, then sprinkle over the remaining third of the cherries and poke them just under the surface with a teaspoon.
Bake the cake near the centre of the oven for 50 minutes, then cover with foil and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes, or until the centre is springy to touch.
Cool the cake in the tin for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.
Store in an airtight tin.
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