Cherry Cake

A classic, seriously easy to make and a real favourite cake of the whole family. A slice tastes amazing with a cup of tea during lazy spring evenings! My favourite part of the cake is that the cherries sink to the botton while baking, and therefore the last bite is always a cherry filled sensation! Mmm...!

Kind of funny, but I remember reading and loving Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, and always wanting to try Aunt Fanny's cherry cake, in which all the cherries sink to the bottom of the cake, and Anne describes it as the best last mouthful in the world. Add ginger beer and egg sandwiches, and you could have a summer picnic right out of Enid Blyton's world!

If you don't like the cherries at the bottom (why, why??), then you need to wash and dry them thoroughly to get rid of all the sticky juices. This gets them lighter and they are more likely to stay in the middle of the cake.

Recipe:

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g self raising flour
225g caster sugar
50g ground almonds (optional)
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
200g or so glace cherries

Method:

1. Wash and dry the cherries thoroughly and quarter the large ones, halve the rest.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, gas mark 4, 350F.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, flour, sugar, eggs, almonds and the baking powder until well mixed (about 2 minutes or so). You can use a wooden spoon to beat as well, but make sure everthing is well mixed in.
4. Fold in the cherries.
5. Grease a 8 inch deep round cake tin, and line it with baking paper (I use nonstick, so only use the greased tin, its never hurt the cake really!).
6. Turn out the cake mixture into the tin, level the top with a spatula, and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or so. Check after an hour, if the cake is not sticky in the middle and if the edges have pulled away from the tin, its done. The top should be a light brown colour.
7. Let the cake cool, and then turn out, and serve with a cup of tea. The cake freezes well, so I cut it into wedges and individually freeze them, for a quick treat :-)