We travelled around last Saturday to pick some window sills for the house and ended up in a large traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. After finally getting there 2 minutes before closing time my mood was *erhm…*. But we found sills and also possible tiles for the first floor so I was quite okay when we headed back into civilization and to our architect. She lives in Frauenstein, a suburb of Wiesbaden, an area that is known for grapes, wine and cherries. On our way home I had to shop 1 kilo of cherries. I was asked with a raised eyebrow “who the hell should eat all those” and I answered “you on a cake” with a big fat grin. He was courios to so I described him this very easy choc’n’cherry cake and after dinner I started to rattle in the kitchen. Luckily the cake tasting a bit like squishy raw cookie dough topped with cherries was approved…
For the cake:
- 200 g butter at room temperature (the only cake I ever made where margarine can be used as a substitute)
- 175 g sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 1 lacing of rum
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 125 g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g grounded almonds
- 100 g grated dark chocolate
- ca 400 g cherries
Preheat the oven to 180° with fan and line a round tin. Wash the cherries and remove the stones. I use the back of a teaspoon, poke it into the top of the cherry and press the stone out on the other side. Make sure you waear an apron, because the juice can splatter and ruin your clothes. Soften the butter/margarine and gradually add the sugar, vanilla sugar and the rum until all ingridients are completely blended. Add the eggs one after the other and keep on whisking for at least 30 seconds per egg. Mix flour, baking powder and salt before sifting into the mass and blend. Last fold in the almonds and the chocolate. Then transfer into the tin and scatter the cherries on top, pushing them in just a little. Bake for 35-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and serve with cream.