Renewed, redone - Cherry Crumble Cake

With all the 'cherry' posts going around, I felt like I should have one (more) too. Like I need an excuse. I have wanted to make this cake again for more than a year now. My reason? The first time I used a too small spring form tin and the photographs were, well, its best I don't say anything (you can see for yourself). It did not occur to me then to switch off the camera flash, or for that matter, remove the butter paper maybe??

So now since the Black Forest Cake had been made, and there was an entire half jar of the cherries left, I dug out this recipe from my recipe book (yes, as you see below, as far as recipes are concerned I live in some long gone decade. What happened to the Word Docs? Oh they exist, I just like to write each and every recipe down in my notebook. Mostly.)

This recipe seems to be a really complicated one, 3 separate layers, cake, crumble and cherry. But if you just follow the recipe, you'll realise, this actually turns out to be one of the easiest you can make. Seriously, you dont even need your electric blender. You'll see. Just plan ahead - and by that I only mean that you need to read the recipe thoroughly once and follow it.

You can use canned (or tinned) cherries or fresh cherries for this cake. Whichever you get/prefer. I prefer to use canned, as they are softer and give a better colour. I used fresh cherries just once before and they wilted and lost all their lovely red colour. So until I know how to use them right, I'll stick to the canned variety. The original recipe says not to use glacé cherries. I am not sure why, but I'd suggest you stick the previous two.

Cherry Crumble Cake

Adapted from recipes by Rachel Allen

You will need:

For the cake -

100g melted butter

350g cherries - pitted (fresh or canned)

150g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of ground cinnamon
50g caster sugar
1 egg
30ml milk

For the crumble topping -
25g plain flour
Pinch of ground cinnamon (feel free to increase this quantity if you want a stronger flavour)
25g caster sugar
25g butter, cubed

20cm diameter spring-form or loose bottomed tin
To make the Cake -

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line your tin with butter paper at the base and oil the sides.

2. Roughly chop the cherries and keep them aside.

3. First make the cake batter - Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add to this the sugar and it well. Then make a well in the centre.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk and melted butter using a balloon whisk or a fork until you get a well mixed liquid. Pour this into the dry ingredients and slowly bring the batter together using a spatula or a wooden spoon. The cake batter is a thick, smooth mixture.

5. Spoon  the batter into the tin and spread it evenly.

6. Scatter the cherries on top of the batter and gently press them in with a spoon.

7. Now make the topping. Take all the ingredients in a bowl and rub the butter into the dry ingredients to make a crumb-like mixture. I used soft butter, but cold butter might make a better top crumble.

8. Scatter the topping evenly over the cherries.

9. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean, but you might find slightly wet crumbs sticking to it. This happens because of the cherries. If it has turned golden brown on top, turn the oven off. 

10. Leave the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes so it it cools slightly and then remove it from the tin. Gently run a knife around the edge  so removing the cake is easier.

11. Cool the cake completely. Or you can serve it warm with a little cream or Ice-cream.