Thursday, July 2, 2020

Double Cherry Almond Tea Cake @lucyburdette



LUCY BURDETTE: You may be at the same stage as I am by now--trying to figure out how to use up some stuff lingering in your fridge. I had the idea for this cake when I saw a mostly-used jar of maraschino cherries and a bag of my Uncle's dried cherries from Michigan. Why not make a cake? You might recognize the cake itself as an iteration of the lemon turmeric cake I made from Alison Roman's Nothing Fancy. Since it's fresh cherry season now, I think you could throw in a few of those too!

Ingredients

One and a half cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup +1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
6 maraschino cherries, drained and quartered
1/2 cup dried cherries
Three-quarter cup sour cream or yogurt
Two large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup or so sliced almonds




Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan and then fit it with parchment paper overlapping the edges so the cake is easy to remove.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt.

Combine 1 cup of sugar with the cherry juice and mix together until the sugar turns pink. Whisk in the eggs, the sour cream, and the almond extract. Add the cherries.




Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring minimally. Fold in the melted butter. 




Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Top the batter with the almond slices slices and sprinkle with sugar.




Bake for about 50 minutes until the tester comes out clean. This will depend of course on how hot your oven runs. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove the cake to a platter. Some people like this served with ice cream – any flavor will do but John suggests chocolate. I like the cake by itself so I can enjoy the amazing flavors!





Five weeks until the next book in the Key West food critic mystery series will arrive in bookstores everywhere! THE KEY LIME CRIME (August 11, 2020) is available for pre-order now!


You can order it at an independent bookstoreBarnes and Noble, Amazon, and anywhere books are sold!




Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series, featuring fiesty food critic Hayley Snow. Number 9, A DEADLY FEAST, is in stores and online everywhere. Number 8, DEATH ON THE MENU, will be out in paperback on July 28


10 comments:

  1. The cake looks delicious...I love anything with cherries! I can’t wait for The Key Lime Crime.

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    1. Thanks Chris, I am with you on cherries, and also can’t wait for that book to come out!

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  2. Cherries Three Ways--love it! (In our household, we use Maraschino cherries in Manhattans...)

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    1. But you have to admit that the sugar with the maraschino cherry juice was really pretty

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  3. Oh, this is right up my alley! I have a whole unopened jar of cherries left from a BOGO sale, when I bought some to make pineapple upside-down cake for dh's birthday in March. (Wish I had the fixings for Manhattans like Leslie.) I'm out of almonds, so adding that to my list, then I'll be all set. The repairman's coming to fix the oven this afternoon, which is funny because now the heat index for today will hit 100, yikes! Thanks for the inspiration, Lucy/Ro!

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  4. Looks good! I, too, am putting together combinations of things on hand to use up food. And baking more since we were able to get flour again. I just finished my ARC of Key Lime Crime. I love Hayley and everyone will love this book. She's grown and things have changed but she's always Hayley, isn't she? (review soon :-) )

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    1. Oh thank you, I am so thrilled that you liked it. Exactly, Hayley’s still Hayley but she’s growing and changing at the same time

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  5. Fresh cherries sound like a great idea.
    Maraschino cherries are not food in my universe. I think they are colored and flavored pressed paper!
    What is the function of the cherry juice?

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    1. It adds a little boost of that cherry flavor and it also turns the batter a little bit pink. I am sure you could do it without

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