It’s been years since I ate something with cherries in it. Along with apricots, they’re not one of Justin’s favourite dried fruits. He’s more of a raisin/sultana kinda guy. Having said that, wrap virtually anything in a cake batter and he’ll have a slice. I actually quite like them, so this week, I bought some and made a cherry and almond pound cake.
Cherry and almond is a classic pairing in cakes, biscuits and other sweet, baked goods. Glacé cherries are such as 1960s/70 foodstuff; a tropical cocktail garnish stalwart also to be found accompanying pineapple chunks and cubes of cheddar on a buffet ‘hedgehog’.
As an aside, I can’t recommend highly enough paper loaf tin liners; they avert a lot of faffing about with parchment paper. Before buying them though, make sure they fit the dimensions of your tin.
The results were delicious. The flavour combination did indeed work perfectly – and the cake was sweet & moist. It wasn’t intentional, but it looks quite festive too… the red cherries on a white icing sugar background. We both enjoyed it and agreed that it’s definitely a ‘cup of tea’ cake rather than a ‘cup of coffee’ cake. So, if time allows – rustle yourself one up, get the kettle on… and enjoy!
Click here or on the image below to save the cherry almond pound cake recipe to Pinterest
This rhubarb pound cake is one of the prettiest cakes I’ve made in a long time. The secret to keeping the bright pink stems is to slice and poach them in syrup for just a minute prior to adding them to the batter.
We have a young rhubarb crown that grows in an old dolly tub; it’s about 4 years old, so just about ready to start harvesting. We managed to harvest about half a dozen stalks and acquired a few more from our neighbours’ garden, whose chickens we’ve been looking after while they’ve been away.
Speaking of which – look at the colour of those whisked eggs produced by the aforementioned chucks – aren’t they a bright yellow?! I made some scrambled eggs earlier this week, and it was almost glow-in-the-dark!
The middle layer of rhubarb is a nice twist, and now I’ll always remember the tip about pre-cooking a cake for 20 minutes before adding the top layer of fruit to prevent it sinking during the bake.
The combination of tart rhubarb and sweet vanilla sponge is a real winner.
Cut rhubarb stalks to fit crosswise inside the top of a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. (They should be about 5 inches, but they could also be a little less.) You’ll need enough rhubarb to cover the top of the cake in the loaf pan, plus a few extra pieces in case any split during poaching
In a medium pot, combine sugar, 1 cup water and the vanilla bean and seeds, and bring to a boil. Simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Stir in rhubarb, simmer for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Cool to room temperature, then slice rhubarb in half lengthwise so you have long, thin pieces. Reserve poaching liquid
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour the loaf pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt
In a small bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in half the flour mixture until just combined, then beat in milk mixture until barely combined, scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined
Scrape half the batter into prepared pan, then lay half of the rhubarb slices in an even layer on top of the batter. Cover with remaining batter, smoothing the top
Bake cake for 20 minutes to set the top, then remove pan from the oven and quickly lay the remaining rhubarb slices next to each other on the top of cake. Return pan to oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake's centre comes out clean, another 30 to 50 minutes
While cake is baking, bring rhubarb-poaching liquid to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer; continue to simmer until thickened and syrupy, about 10 minutes. Brush some syrup on top of cake once it comes out of the oven. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack before serving, at least 2 hours, then carefully remove the cake from the pan and serve
I bought a pot of buttermilk last week with the intention of making a loaf of Irish soda bread. After spending the last few days eating the sourdough burger buns I’d baked, we were all breaded out!
Rather than allow the buttermilk to reach it’s ‘best before’ date, I used it to make a coconut buttermilk pound cake.
I found the perfect recipe on the Martha Stewart website – I already had all the ingredients in the kitchen.
Sometimes, on an online recipe, the comments made by people who have tried out the recipe are hugely useful. A couple of people stated that the size of the loaf tin recommended wasn’t big enough and they had left over batter. Because of this, I used my largest loaf tin – 19 x 15 x 10cm (8 x 6 x 4-inch). This was probably a bit to big – a smaller one would have sufficed.
Martha Stewart’s original recipe uses sweetened, shredded coconut however, dessicated coconut is easier to get hold of in the supermarket here in the UK. Dessicated is much finer than shredded, so I altered the recipe slightly.
It’s not often that there’s a ‘how to’ video of a recipe available – the one I embedded at the bottom of the post shows just how easy this recipe is.
Are cupcakes still all the rage? I never really got that into them, perhaps because I’m terrible at decorating them. The icing has to be perfect for me to really enjoy them. Crunchy icing puts my teeth on edge. It needs to be a sweet, flavoursome butter cream or cream cheese.
These jam-filled pound cupcakes don’t need any topping because the interest is all in the middle. I used some of my home-made mixed berry jelly from last autumn – there are always a few jars in the store cupboard. You can use any fruit jam, marmalade or lemon curd instead. Or what about a spoonful of Nutella? Mmmmmmmm…
I used a pound cake recipe I found in Marvellous Mini-Cakes – a little book full of teensy sweet & savoury cakes. I used to think a pound cake was a cake that weighed a pound! In actual fact, it’s a cake traditionally made with a pound each of its four main ingredients – butter, sugar, flour and eggs… so I guess it’s really a 4lb cake!
As tempting as they may be, please don’t attempt to eat these straight from the oven. The hot, molten jam will scald the roof of your mouth!
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