Kirsebærkage - Danish Cherry Cake

This kirsebærkage aka Danish cherry cake is baked with fresh cherries. It is easy to make and even easier to eat, with a tender crumb and golden top.

Last month we spent a week in France reveling in the fabulous fresh produce, shopping and cooking and eating extremely well in our little cottage with a sea view.

The very first day, before we even checked in to the Airbnb, we stopped at a supermarket to pick up dinner supplies and came across a great sale on cherries. Only 4 euros a kilo! So about $2 a pound. Now, I know that’s not super cheap in the States where during the summer, cherries can get as low at $1 a pound but on the island of Jersey, we aren’t so lucky.

Anyhoo, all to say, we bought cherries and then before we headed home, we bought even more to take back. 

We’ve got builders in right now, working on an extension to the house so I baked this cake to share with them. Went down a treat!  

Kirsebærkage - Danish Cherry Cake

This recipe is adapted from one on BenedictesMad. She says it’s so easy, even her six-year-old can make it if she preps the ingredients.

Ingredients

8 oz or 225g fresh cherries

3 eggs 

1 1/2 cup or 150g sugar (I used golden caster)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup or 113g butter, softened, plus extra for the pan

1 ¼ cups or 156g flour, plus extra for the pan

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 pinches fine sea salt

For topping:

1 tablespoon sugar

Method

First, the hard job. Pit the cherries. Even if you have a cherry pitter, this is a messy job so protect your clothes and work surfaces. We are still in a relative construction zone, cooking in a makeshift kitchen and I couldn’t find mine so I just cut the cherries in half around the pit and removed the pits by prying them out. 

If you pitted yours whole, cut the cherries into halves.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Butter and flour a round baking pan about 9 inches or 23cm in diameter. 

With electric beaters or in the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla until light and aerated. 

Add the softened butter and beat again. The batter will look a bit curd-ly but don’t worry. It will turn into a lovely, creamy batter once the flour is added.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.

 Beat again briefly.

Spoon the batter into your prepared pan. Distribute the cherry pieces over the batter. I put them round side up because I thought that would be prettier. If you can’t be bothered, don’t. Taste will be the same! 

Sprinkle with the extra sugar for topping

Bake in your preheated oven for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. The aroma while it bakes it ah-mazing! It brought my husband through to ask how the cake was going. 

Turning it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool before cutting into wedges to serve. 

This cake is often served with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream. We enjoyed it just as it was. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing cakes from around the world in celebration of International Cake Day tomorrow. Many thanks to our host Camilla of Culinary Cam. Check out the links below. 

• Carlota de Limon from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Kirsebærkage - Danish Cherry Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Kyiv Cake from A Messy Kitchen
• Madeira Cake from Sneha's Recipe
• Persian Love Cake from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Taiwanese Castella Cake from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Topfen-Obers-Torte from Culinary Cam

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join. 

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Sticky Pudding Carrot Pineapple Cake

This vegan sticky pudding carrot pineapple cake is aptly named for the sweet ingredients and the more-ish texture. It is divine alone or with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of double cream. Decadent for sure. 

November is World Vegan Month so I thought it would be fun to celebrate that with my Foodie Extravaganza friends. There are so many ingredients and dishes that we eat that are “accidentally” vegan that it makes me crazy when people turn their noses up if they see the label. 

If you’ve ever eaten a salad, vegan. Ditto literally every vegetable or fruit. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vegan. Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch and Life cereal, vegan. Kraft Creamy Italian Salad Dressing, Campbell’s Mushroom Gravy, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, vegan. Lay’s Barbecue Potato Chips, Fritos Barbecue AND Original, all vegan. You can find an ENORMOUS list with just a click. 

And that list is just some of the processed food. 

Cooking at home without including dairy, eggs and meat is super easy. I’ve found some delicious recipes searching not for vegan food but for orthodox lent recipes. Lots of Middle Eastern and Greek dishes that do not disappoint, like my bulgur stuffed peppers! So good. 

Lots of Asian recipes are also accidentally vegan as well, like my coconut chickpea new potato curry and baby eggplant curry (made in an Instant Pot - so quick!) 

Don’t get me wrong, we do eat dairy and meat and eggs but it’s healthier for us and for the planet to try to add meals without them to our menu as well. So that’s always a goal. 

Vegan Sticky Pudding Carrot Pineapple Cake

In the case of this delicious sticky cake recipe, the only substitution required is an alternative “milk.” I did a quick search and most people in my non-judgy vegan Facebook group (they like you wherever you are on the curve of trying to eat more plant-based food) agreed that, for baking, soy milk was best, so that’s what I used. This recipe is adapted from one on Nora Cooks. 

Ingredients

1 lb or 450g peeled carrots

2 1/2 cups or 312g all purpose flour, plus extra for the Bundt pan

1 cup, firmly packed, or 200g brown sugar

1 cup or 200g white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil, plus extra for the Bundt pan

1 cup or 245g crushed pineapple

3/4 cup or 180ml plant-based milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by brushing it liberally with oil then coating it with flour. Do not skip this step! Mine stuck on one side, despite my amply preparations. 

Note: I considered afterward that if I baked the cake in a normal pan instead of a Bundt one it might have turned out less puddingy but I have no regrets. My multiple taste testers loved it and that's good enough for me. 

Grate your peeled carrots finely. 

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients then whisk well. 

Pour in the canola oil, crushed pineapple, milk and vanilla and fold until just combined with a spatula. 

There may still be a little flour showing and that’s just fine. 

Now fold in the grated carrots. Do not over mix the batter. 

Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean from the middle. Put foil over the top if it browns too much before it’s cooked through. 

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

Allow to cool for about 20 minutes before loosening the edges and carefully inverting the pan onto the wire rack. I’m not kidding about how sticky it is. If some sticks to the pan, remove it carefully and stick it back on the cake. 

Yeah, that's what going on on the far side. It's not pretty but it's tasty. 

Once cooled completely, slice to serve.  

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it’s time for my Foodie Extravaganza friends to share their recipes, in honor of World Vegan Month. Check out the links below.

• Baba Ghanoush from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Bhendi - Okra Masala Dry from Sneha’s Recipe
• Capsicum Potato Curry - Aloo Shimla Mirch from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Chickpea Falafel Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Lumina Pumpkin Olan from Magical Ingredients
• Sticky Pudding Carrot Pineapple Cake from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet and Sour Eggplant Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Carrot Pineapple Cake! 

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Clementine Pistachio Upside Down Cake

Take your dessert to a beautiful new level with this clementine pistachio upside down cake, baked with pomegranate arils. Easy to make but pretty enough for company. Lots of color and flavor, like a party on a plate. 

I am a huge fan of upside down cakes. First of all, they are super easy to make. The cake batter itself is a quick one bowl recipe – no creaming butter and sugar first – just pile all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and beat. 

The fruit or nuts at the bottom (and then, of course, the top when it’s flipped) can be varied by what you have on hand and the season. I’ve even used canned fruit too, with great success. Drained canned apricots are particularly pretty if you take the care to place them all rounded side down.

Clementine Pistachio Upside Down Cake

This upside down cake features beautiful orange clementines. Mine were quite large, but if all you can find are smaller ones, that works too. Just use a few more to make sure the bottom of your pan is covered in slices before spooning in the batter.

Ingredients

For the upside down part:

2 large clementines (zest one for the batter!)

1⁄8 cup or 20g pomegranate arils, some reserved for garnish 

1⁄4 cup or 30g slivered pistachios, some reserved for garnish 

1⁄3 cup or 75g butter, plus extra for buttering the pan

1⁄2 cup, packed, or 100g light brown sugar

For the cake batter:

1 1⁄2 cups or 190g flour

1 cup or 200g sugar

1⁄2 cup or 113g butter, at room temperature 

1⁄2 cup or 120ml milk

2 eggs

3⁄4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

Zest 1 large clementine

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare a springform baking pan (about 10in or 25cm diameter) by buttering it liberally and then lining it with parchment paper cut to the exact size of the bottom. You can take your chances and not line it if you have a non­stick pan but sometimes caramelizing sugar will stick. And that is one of the risks of upside down cakes. 

Melt your butter and allow it to cool slightly. Add in the brown sugar and stir well. Pour this mixture into the baking pan. It should spread right out and cover the bottom.

Peel your clementines and cut them into about four or five slices each. Remove any seeds.

Arrange them side by side over the sugar/butter mixture, making sure to put all the cut sides down, because those will be up when we turn the cake over. Sprinkle the pomegranate arils and pistachios all in and around the clementines, saving some for garnish.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all of the cake batter ingredients at low speed until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula.

Increase the beater speed to medium and beat for five minutes, stopping every couple of minutes to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Slowly spoon the batter over the clementine slices in your baking pan. Smooth out the top with your rubber spatula.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes. The cake should begin pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Remove the sides of the springform pan. 

Invert your serving plate on the top of your wire rack and turn both over quickly and decisively. Lift the bottom of the springform cake pan off. 

Gently peel the parchment paper off of the cake. If any bits have stuck to the parchment, ease them carefully off with the tip of a knife as you peel back the parchment. Use a spatula to scrape up any syrup left in the pan and drizzle it over the cake.

Leave to cool completely then sprinkle on the reserved pistachios and pomegranate arils.

Cut in 8-10 slices to serve.

Enjoy!

It’s the first Wednesday of the month so that means it’s time for my Foodie Extravaganza friends to share recipes in celebration of October being National Dessert Month.  Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Radha of Magical Ingredients.

• Food Lust People Love: Clementine Pistachio Upside Down Cake 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories : Butterscotch Pots de Creme 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Rose Cham Cham 
• Magical Ingredients: Dried Fruits and Nuts Roll 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Pumpkin Parfaits

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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German Applesauce Cake #BundtBakers

The tender crumb on this German Applesauce Cake reminds me of a buttery pound cake, but with raisins and pecans, making it perfect with a cup of tea. 

Whenever I see jars of applesauce on the grocery store shelves, I must confess that I wonder who is buying it. After all, applesauce has got to be the easy thing in the world to make. Just peel the apples, core, chop and cook down with a splash of lemon juice or water. Literally, that is the whole recipe and it doesn’t even take very long. 

The chopped apples turn to sauce in a matter of about 10 minutes or so. You can speed up the process by mashing them with a potato masher once they soften, if you are really in a hurry.  

Applesauce is a family favorite with roast pork at our house and sometimes even pork chops. The tart but naturally sweet applesauce complements the savory pork wonderful. If you haven’t tried that combination, please do! When we are in the UK, I use Bramley apples which are great for baking and cooking. If I am elsewhere, I use Granny Smiths.  

German Applesauce Cake

I made this cake using Simple Truth Organic Plant Based Egg Replacer. It’s a powder made from chia seeds and chickpeas aka garbanzo beans, specifically for recipes when eggs are a binding agent, for instance, baked goods and quick breads like pancakes or waffles. It's available from Kroger or online, if you are in the States. This recipe is adapted from one on My Patchwork Quilt. 

Ingredients

For the cake batter:

3/4 cup or 150g sugar 

1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon or 78g shortening plus extra for the pan

2 medium eggs (or equivalent amount egg replacer)

1 1/8 cups or 290g homemade or store-bought applesauce

3/4 cup or 110g raisins

1/2 cup or 60g chopped pecans

1 1/2 cups or 187g flour, plus extra for the pan and raisins

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

For the cinnamon glaze:

1/3 cup or 41g powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 – 1  1/2 teaspoons water

Method 

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease and flour a 10-cup Bundt pan.

With electric beaters or in the bowl of your stand mixer, cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs (or egg replacement) and beat until light.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon and salt.

Add applesauce and dissolved baking soda alternately with dry ingredients.

Toss the raisins with a sprinkle of flour then fold in the raisins and chopped pecans.

Spoon batter into your prepared pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean. If it starts browning too much before it's baked through, you can cover the top lightly with foil. 

Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes then turn the cake out to cool completely before glazing. 

To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Add water gradually till you reach drizzling consistency. 

Drizzle the cake with the cinnamon glaze. I also gave mine an extra pinch of cinnamon sprinkled on top. Because apples and cinnamon are best friends. 

Slice to serve.

Enjoy!

Amazingly, it’s already the third Thursday of the month – this summer is zipping by! – so it’s time for my Bundt Baker friends to share their recipes. Today’s theme is applesauce! Many thanks to Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe for the theme and our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for her behind the scenes work. Check out the recipes links below.

• All That’s Left Are The Crumbs: Amish Applesauce Bundt Cake
• Patyco Candybar: Applesauce Bundt with Caramel Glaze
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Applesauce Spice Cake
• Magical Ingredients: Caramel Coconut Apple Bundt Cake
• Passion Kneaded : Cinnamon Walnut Applesauce Bundt
• Food Lust People Love: German Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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