How To | Cherry & Almond Sponge Cake
Its my Dad's birthday today and he asked for a cherry and almond birthday cake, so I made one from scratch, seeing as its not your bog standard cake, I thought I'd put a recipe up here on my blog, if you have a go at making one, or instead of making one big cake, you could make cupcakes or muffins, then let me know using my social networking sites at the end of the post or in the sidebar :) ENJOY!
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Time to cook: 1 Hour - 1hr15
Serves: 8-10
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
200g Margarine
200g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
175g Self Rising Flour
85g Ground Almonds
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
300g Glacier Cherries
100ml Milk
2 tbsp Flaked Almonds
BEFORE WE BEGIN...
Pre-heat the oven to 160C/140F/Gas Mark 3
STEP 1: SUGAR & BUTTER MIX
Firstly, measure out the sugar and the butter and place both in a mixing bowl or in a mixer and beat together until the mixture looks light and fluffy.
STEP 2: ADD THE EGGS
Break the eggs one by one into the bowl, beating the mixture inbetween each egg, once they're all in the mixture, keep beating for another 15 seconds. (TIP: Break the eggs into a separate bowl in case any shells fall in, it will be much easier to fish them out especially if you're not in the mixture).
STEP 3: GET FOLDING
Weigh out the flour, and ground almonds, then drop in the almond extract and the baking powder, don't beat these in, get a spatula and turn the mixture over, literally folding the mixture over, if you mix them in, you'll beat the air out of the mixture and your cake won't rise very well.
Once you've done that, pour in the cherries and the milk and fold them in also. (NOTE: If you use whole cherries, they'll sink to the bottom, if you don't want that, quarter or chop the cherries into pieces). If you want cherry flavour throughout like I did, blend the cherries in a mixer BEFORE you make the cake mix and you'll have little bits of cherry throughout the whole cake :)
STEP 4: POUR THE MIXTURE
Choose a cake tin and make sure you line it with grease proof paper first or your cake will be impossible to shift when its ready to come out of the oven and if you force it, it may ruin the sides of the cake.
Now, simply pour the mixture in, if you're using 2 tins (to get a sandwich cake), it doesn't matter if they aren't even, just use the bigger one as a base. You could also make them into cupcakes or muffins if you don't want to bake a whole cake.
STEP 5: USE THE FLAKED ALMONDS
Before you put your cake in the oven, sprinkle some flaked almonds on the top, if you're making a sandwich cake, put them on both cakes, especially if you're not sure which one will be the base and which one will go on the top.
STEP 6: PUT THEM IN THE OVEN
Don't adjust the heat, leave it on the temperature you pre-heated the oven at, and put the cake(s) in the middle of the oven. It should take between 1 hour and 1hr15 to cook straight through, when you take it out of the oven, put a fork through the middle to test if its cooked through, if the fork comes out clean, its ready :)
If you made this or a variation of it, then I would love to see it, or simply tweet me! See you Sunday with a brand new post :)
If you made this or a variation of it, then I would love to see it, or simply tweet me! See you Sunday with a brand new post :)
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PREVIOUS BLOG POST: 'Father's Day | Gifts For My Dad'
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