Tangy Cherry and Lemon Cake

Back to a lovely, large cake recipe for this month's blog with a tangy cherry and lemon cake made with yoghurt. This is a wonderfully moist and not oversweet classic for cherry lovers, doused with a lemon drizzle. Using less eggs than an standard Victoria or pound cake recipe and with more yoghurt to add to the tangy flavours. Wonderful for an afternoon tea and the secret to it's success; don't be mean with the cherries!

And when I say mean, I mean 'mean' ....! I had severely underestimated the amount I needed to purchase in a previous cake. I favour 'placing the cherries in the batter' as opposed to mixing them in which is meant to guarantee you getting a bite of the cherry; it was disappointing and you were lucky to get one in a slice. 

So this for friends who love cherries, especially the glacé kind and want a lot please and have been know to pick through fruit cake to hunt them out. I shall not be naming names but you know who you are and I'm glad  you enjoyed this one.

This recipe bakes two loaf style cakes or one large bundt/ring cake.

Text Only Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

250g   Butter

250g   Caster sugar 

2 Large eggs

180-200g  Plain yoghurt*

260g   Self raising flour

2 large lemons

1 tbsp caster sugar for the lemon drizzle

300 g glacé cherries** (about 1 and half large containers)

*I have used Yeo Valley Yogurt which has a reasonable thick consistency but other yogurts I have used are thinner so you may need to adjust by a few spoonfuls accordingly.

**Glacé cherries- I have tried to be generous with the cherries here and I would encourage you do to the same but again it is personal preference so please adjust if you would prefer.

Method:

Preheat oven 160c/140c Fan/325F/Gas Mark 3.

Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold in half the flour . Gently stir in the yoghurt and zest of the two lemons. Fold in the rest of the flour. Batter should not be too runny but fall gently off the spoon - adjust with slightly more yoghurt or milk as needed.

Place a layer of the batter in the tin and start to add the cherries; evenly spaced out and repeat this with another layer of batter and more cherries. The batter will rise up over the last layer of cherries so don't worry about pushing them too far in.

Still not enough cherries , imagine a slice and see how many cherries you would get in it !

Bake in the centre of the oven until risen and a skewer comes cleanly out. Check after 20 minutes and depending on the type of tin you have chosen lower the oven temperature to 120c if it looks like it is browning too quickly on top. Check with a skewer again if necessary in the centre and leave to cool in tin for 15 mins. 

Make drizzle topping by juicing the 2 lemons- put juice in microwave with a tbsp of caster sugar and heat for a minute. Stir and heat for another minute. Cool slightly . Prick tip of cakes lightly with a fork and brush drizzle generously over cake. Wrap cake in foil/film to maintain moistness.

Cupid's Honey Clouds and more Valentine Cupcakes

I have been looking for some cupcakes to keep my Sweet Cherry Lips company from my previous post. Love and Cupid came to the rescue in the form of some cute chocolate moulds. I'm not really sure if they are meant to be Cupids as they don't have 'his' official bow and arrow but they have very cheeky faces for Valentines Day.  They are lounging on a white chocolate frosting and underneath we have a honey cake with a honey and mallow fluff filling which sounds very comfortable to me!

I simply swapped 1/3 of the sugar for honey and used golden caster sugar for the cupcake. Then in the centre is a 1/2 tsp of honey and 1 tsp of marshmallow fluff topped with a white chocolate buttercream. I used half super white candy melts to half buttercream. The cupid is also made from white choc candy melt sprayed gold.

So we have Cupid's Honey Clouds, Sweet Cherry Lips and Big Banoffee Love! Did I spoil the sentiment with the last one? Well, its definitely big on banana flavour in the cupcake, and in the buttercream frosting plus a rich caramel centre. Nothing complicated just fun with decorations.

I've tried to use different flavours for the theme although I will be enjoying traditional champagne truffles and fizz in the morning ( I know this because I have located said goodies in the back of the cupboard already >< ) The Sweet Cherry Lips can be found here too which are red velvet choc style cupcake, morello cherry centre and a vanilla frosting. Another mouthwatering selection for later in the day.

Happy Valentines and watch out for those LIPS!