How many of you remember cherry cake as a teatime treat? How many of you still whip up a mean cherry cake for teatime? At some point in our childhoods, most of us will have encountered this fine example of classic, old-school baking. Different versions of cherry cake exist around the world. In America, cherry cake is generally a frosting-covered, layered, pink sponge, made with maraschino cherries, with the the maraschino juice from the jar giving the cake it's candy-floss pink colour.
But the British version is a much simpler affair. A traditional British cherry cake is generally a madeira sponge cake that contains halved or quartered glacè cherries - that are usually red - which is then topped with icing or a glaze, flaked almonds and more glacè cherries. Or just left plain! We said it was simple!
It is a very old-fashioned, very traditional English cake and so versatile that it fits the bill for just about everything: picnics; afternoon tea; lunch boxes; bake sales, and it is the staple of many traditional tearooms. And at one time, cherry cakes were one of the most popular cakes to be baked among the members of the Women's Institute. It may sound simple to make, but quite often it's a mission to prevent the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake. However people have their own methods for preventing this from happening. One of them being to rinse off the sticky syrup from the cherries before dusting them with flour. Delia Smith believes in mixing two-thirds of the cherries into the cake mixture before poking the remaining third through the top of the cake just before it goes into the oven. Sounds like a great idea!
For those of us who aren't into glacè cherries (hands up all those who knew that they were actually real cherries?) and are wondering if they can use fresh or frozen cherries instead, well you can - but there's a good chance they might sink to the bottom of the cake. That's why glacè cherries are used instead of the juicy, fresh stuff because the lack of moisture in the glacè cherries means that they won't sink as much as the other variety. You might have better luck with dried cherries though.
Give it a go
For those of you who would like to have a go at making this classic bake, here's a recipe for you to try. Usually cherry cake is made with ground almonds but with this one, we've used desiccated coconut - and included the addition of dates! You know - just to mix it up a little! For those of you who wish to use a glaze, there's also an additional super-simple recipe for creating the glaze.
And if you want something a lot closer to the classic cherry cake recipe (but with a slight Nostalgia Pie twist!) then check out our downloadable FREE recipe card for cherry cake. It can also be printed out and put into your recipe box. It's only available to Nostalgia Pie members, so if you haven't signed up to join our community... why ever not???
Ingredients
6oz glacé cherries, extra if using to decorate
3oz dates, chopped
4oz self-raising flour
3oz. plain flour
6oz softened butter, plus extra for greasing
6oz caster sugar
3oz desiccated coconut
1tsp Vanilla essence
3 eggs
You Will Need
7" square OR 8" round cake tin
Greaseproof paper
Skewer (to test cake)
Wire cooling rack
This is how we do it!
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Grease cake tin and line base with greased greaseproof paper.
Rinse and dry cherries well. Cut the cherries into halves or quarters. Then toss in a little of the plain flour.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add a little at a time.
Stir in desiccated coconut.
Combine the remaining flours and add to mixture a little at a time.
Stir in cherries and dates - do not beat.
Spoon mixture into tin.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or bake until skewer inserted into centre of the cake comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
If you wish, add glaze and decorate with remaining cherries.
Top Tips:
If using almonds, add 2-3 drops of almond extract to intensify the flavour.
You can use the grated zest of a lemon instead of vanilla essence if you wish.
Glaze for cherry cake
Ingredients
150g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 water
This is how we do it!
Mix the icing sugar together with the lemon juice and water to a thick paste.
If too runny, add a little extra icing sugar.
Drizzle over the cooled cake using the back of a spoon.
Sprinkle over the toasted almonds and reserved cherries (optional.)
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