morello cherry bundt cake

morello cherry bundt cake

• 21 Nov 2016

Flicking through a magazine a few months back I saw a recipe for a sour cherry and lemon butter cake. I thought that sounded like a tasty combination so last week I decided to make my own morello cherry version topped with lemon flavoured glacé icing.



A few months back I bought a bottle of morello cherries when I planned to make a sour cherry and cream cheese babka. That never happened so the bottle's stayed unopened in the cupboard ever since. I adapted the Gretta Anna plum cake recipe that I've been making for years. Instead of topping the cake batter with sliced plums, I folded the sour cherries through the batter.



I really like old fashioned butter cakes and so do my workmates. I had some leftover buttermilk so I used that to make the cake and flavoured the batter with grated lemon rind. You could use vanilla and cinnamon as flavourings if your prefer.



This butter cake is very moist so the fruit always sinks to the bottom of the cake. That's great when you use a regular round tin but not so pretty when you use a bundt tin. I also had no idea how many cherries to add to the cake batter so I used just under a cup of drained cherries. Some I left whole whilst some I halved as quite a few of cherries in the bottle still had pits left inside.



If you'd like to make the recipe, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. The eggs I use are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

This recipe makes a small bundt cake or a 17cm round cake. If you'd like to make a large bundt cake or a 23 cm/9 inch cake just double all the cake ingredients. You may need to bake the 9 inch cake for a little longer than the bundt cake. The quantity of icing will be sufficient for a large bundt cake.



Morello Cherry Bundt Cake
125 grams unsalted butter
⅔ cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup almond meal
¼ cup buttermilk
⅔ cup well drained morello cherries

Glace Icing
1 cup sifted icing sugar
Lemon juice

Method
1. Preheat oven to moderate (180°C/160°C fan-forced). Generously grease a small bundt tin or 17 cm round cake tin with butter and then finish with a dusting of flour.

2. To make the cake, cream the butter, sugar and rind together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined well. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small and stir in the almond meal. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to make a soft batter. Gently fold through the cherries.

3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, gently smoothing the surface.

4. Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the cake is well risen, the top is golden and the cakes tests ‘cooked’ when tested with a skewer.

5. Allow the cake to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

6. When the cake is cool either dust the top of the cake with the icing sugar or drizzle with the glacé icing.



Icing
In a small bowl, combine the icing sugar with a little lemon juice to form a thick icing. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

Store the cake in a cake tin for up to 5 days but it won't last that long!



I took the cake into work and it disappeared in a flash so it would seem that morello cherries and lemon are a winning combination.



See you all again next week.

Bye for now.

Jillian