Last week I baked this cherry cake for the first time. It turned out pretty good I must say. Just before shooting I decided to make it a little bit more fancy. My initial plan was to sift the cake with some powdered sugar. I guess I thought I’m too skilled for using my sifter so I tried to do it with a spoon instead. My application got a bit messy and at the end my whole cake was white. The kitchen was a disaster, powdered sugar everywhere. Not only did I create a big mess, but I also ended up with no photos and an overly sweet cake.
As they say every cloud has a silver lining. Today I baked the cake again, changed a recipe a bit and it turned out even better.
Basically you can make this cake with whatever fruit you have. You can also substitute almond flour with all-purpose or spelt flour, but I think the cake has a nice mild texture and nutty flavour thanks to almonds. If you know that you have a sweet tooth, go ahead and add more sugar to the batter. Serve it with greek yogurt or a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup / 100 g almond flour (or ground almonds)
- 1/2 cup / 50 g oat flour (or ground oats, use gluten-free if intolerant)
- 5 tbsp coconut or cane sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 eggs, separated
- 3 tbsp hot water
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- a pinch of salt
- 2.8 oz / 80 g good quality chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1 cup cherries, pitted
- a handful of almond flakes
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 374 F/ 190°C. Line a 20 cm x 25 cm (7.8 inch x 9.8 inch) cake pan with a sheet of parchment paper.
- Place the egg whites in a separate bowl, add a pinch of salt and beat with a hand mixer until stiff.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer, whisk together egg yolks, hot water, vanilla and sugar. Once well mixed, add almond flour, oat flour, baking powder and continue whisking for another 2 minutes.
- Mix in the chocolate pieces. Then using a spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter until just combined, making sure not to over mix.
- Pour the cake batter into the tray. Sprinkle with cherries and almond flakes. Bake for about 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely before serving. Serve with yogurt or vanilla ice-cream.