I think everyone has a jar of those maraschino cocktail cherries in syrup lurking in the back of a cupboard somewhere. Usually bought en masse at Christmas, along with giant packets of mixed nuts and Eat Me dates, they are often one of those things that are bought with the best intentions, yet are inevitably left unopened. Well, I found my jar the other day so thought I'd experiment and try them in a recipe. The resulting cake was moist, full of flavour and a vibrant pink in colour, so if you too have a rogue jar of cherries lurking in a cupboard somewhere, give this one a go!
Prep time: 20 Minutes
Baking time: 50 Minutes
1 Jar Maraschino Cocktail Cherries (225g)
175g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
150g Caster Sugar
3 Medium Eggs
100g Ground Almonds
25g Dessicated Coconut
1tsp Baking Powder
100g Plain Flour
Icing Sugar (To dust)
Before you start the cake you just need to blitz up the cherries. Tip the whole jar with their syrup into a mini chopper and give them a good blast until they are blended. If you don't have a mini chopper or small food processor you can chop them thoroughly by hand and then just return them to the syrup whilst you get on with the cake itself.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease/line the base of a 20cm loose bottomed tin. Cream together the softened butter and caster sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold through the ground almonds with the dessicated coconut, then sift in the baking powder with the plain flour and do the same. Tip in the chopped cherries in their syrup then gently work them through the cake mixture until evenly combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, then bake in the centre of the oven for around 50 minutes, until a metal skewer can be cleanly removed when inserted into the middle of the cake. When you're happy it's cooked remove the cake from the oven, leave for 20 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. When the cake has cooled dust with icing sugar and you're all done!
No comments:
Post a Comment