I decided to make a cake with Morello glace cherries in. I have done a similar cake before a few years back. But for this one I decided upon a Madeira cake, though flavoured with some almond extract rather than the more traditional lemon. Almond flavour goes so well with cherries that I was sure it would be good.
The recipe is quite simple, so the cake is easy to make. Just mix the ingredients and put them in a loaf tin, then bake for an hour.
For me, Madeira cake is ideal with afternoon tea, so this cherry version will be a welcome change to the normal cake.
Mine turned out very well indeed, and the taste is so very good. The almond flavour in the cake comes through and then the occasional bite of cherry too. This cake is very moreish and is a welcome change to all the rich food we shall all be eating over the holiday period.
Ingredients:
- 240g softened unsalted butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 210g self raising flour
- 90g plain flour
- 20ml milk
- 5ml almond extract
- 3 large eggs(XL in USA)
- 150g glace cherries, washed, dried and halved.
- Extra flour to toss the cherries in.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325F.
- Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin.
- In a large bowl place the butter and sugar and cream together until nice and fluffy(I used a hand mixer).
- Add the eggs to the butter mixture, one at a time with a little flour to prevent curdling, and mix until combined.
- Add the milk and almond extract and mix to combine.
- Add the flours and mix until just combined, don’t over mix.
- Toss the cherries in a little flour to coat them.
- Add the cherries to the batter and gently stir in.
- Place the batter into the prepared loaf tin and level off.
- Sprinkle with a little caster sugar if you wish.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour, until the cake has risen(it should split on the top, that is normal) and a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes, then remove from the loaf tin and take off the paper.
- Cool on a wire rack before slicing.