Amarena Cherry Cake - À La Alice Zaslavsky

I met the lovely Alice recently!  I made two of these cakes for her book launch at our wonderful new local indie bookshop The Quick Brown Fox.  Phew, that's a lot of adjectives.  Alice was a Masterchef Aus contestant some years ago, and now writes cookbooks, is on tv and radio, and so on.  Her cheery smile is ubiquitous.  

I love cherries - so luscious, so round and sweet.  They remind me of our backpacking travels through Europe; of buying huge bags of them in Belgrade, a city full of young soldiers in uniform, carrying rifles.  Of our many times in Tasmania, picking them off our friends' tree in their backyard overlooking the Derwent River.  Of happy summer feasts, enjoying them in their short season.  Cherries make me think of Christmas, 'cos that's when we see them in the shops.  Don't buy those imported ones, my friends!  Stick to the season.

oh so moist and delicious

Recipe by Alice Zaslavsky:

Serves 8-10:

ingredients:

180g./6.3 oz almond meal (ground almonds)

60g./2 big ounces dessicated coconut

1/2 tsp sea salt

250g./9 oz caster sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp amaretto (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (see Notes) 

200g./7 oz butter, melted and cooled 

Nicely rounded handful of flaked almonds

240g./8.5 oz jar of amarena cherries, drained (see Notes)

icing sugar for dusting (optional)

extra fruit and mascarpone for serving (optional)

Method:

Turn on your oven to heat to 180C/355F

Grease a 20 cm/8 inch springform cake tin, and line with baking paper - see Notes

Whisk the almond meal, coconut, salt and caster sugar together in a medium bowl

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together, add the extracts and whisk them in well

Pour the cooled butter into the egg mixture, and whisk till everything is well combined 

Now scatter the dry ingredients over the wet mixture, and whisk in well - Alice says this makes a very runny batter, but I didn't really find this, so I think you'll be fine whether it's super runny or just a  normal batter

Bake for 20 minutes, then take out of the oven, cast the almond flakes and cherries over the top of the cake, and back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes (mine took the extra 25 mins. both times)

Let it cool in the tin, sitting on a wire rack, then serve with icing sugar and extra cherries if desired

Notes:

Alice suggests 1/8 tsp bitter almond aroma but honestly, who has that in the pantry? :=)  Not me!  And she does say it's optional ...  

I bought a tub of Amarena cherries at our local deli, which I think were better than the jarred ones.  I drained them, and kept the syrup as a cordial

I used a regular cake tin, with lots of baking paper up the sides so I could just pull the cake out of the tin - it worked fine

I made this cake two separate times, and neither time was the batter very runny; the first time in fact it was rather dry, and the second time just a normal batter - perhaps it depends on the freshness (or not) of your almond meal and coconut :=)

ingredients gathered

whisk your eggs

whisking dry into wet

et voilà - a lovely batter for cake number 1

the second cake batter - a bit runnier than the first time

first one ready for the oven

second batch heading to the oven

and ... baked

enjoy with fruit and cream to increase the joy

the lovely Theresa with my cakes for the book launch/morning tea

almonds and cherries