Cherry bakewell cake

When I saw this recipe on Rosie’s lovely site Baking Cakes Galore I knew I had to make it as soon as possible!


The cake takes all the flavour elements of a bakewell tart and puts it into the format of a sandwich cake. For the purists, my cherry bakewell tart recipe can be found here.

Even with a heavy head cold, I could smell the delicious almonds while the cake was baking. Almond is such a rich smell and is also a terrific ingredient for keeping cakes moist. Here are the sponges cooling, if you wonder why there are four it’s because I made two cakes:


To keep this a cherry bakewell I used morello cherry jam; there were several types available in my supermarket but, if you prefer, raspberry jam would also be nice. Sandwiched but un-iced:


I’d forgotten to buy toasted flaked almonds for this cake but had some flaked almonds in my store cupboard. I toasted them in a dry frying pan and have to say that I will never buy ready-toasted again; the flavour was so much better.


We all agreed that this is a stunning cake; the sort of cake that you didn’t think existed anymore in an age of sprinkles and buttercream. Proper comfort food!

This is probably overkill now, but the photo was too lovely to omit!


Ingredients:
For the cake:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
100g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 large eggs

For the filling and icing:
Approximately ½ a 340g jar of morello cherry conserve, the best quality you can find
175g icing sugar
5-6 teaspoons water or lemon juice
2 tablespoons flaked almonds, lightly toasted
Glace cherries

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line two 20cm loose bottomed sandwich tins with baking paper.
- To makes the cakes, you can simply beat all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth and well combined.
- Having said that, I still prefer to cream the butter and sugar first, and then add the remaining ingredients.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tins and level the tops.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
- When cool, place one sponge on a plate and spread the jam over.
- Place the second sponge on top. If you want a flat surface, invert the second sponge i.e. so the curved top is sitting in the jam. My sponges came out fairly level so it didn’t really matter for me.
- To toast the flaked almonds simply dry fry them for approximately 4 minutes until they take on some colour but are not burnt.
- Now make the icing: place the icing sugar in a bowl and gradually beat in the water until you have a glossy, thick but spreadable icing. Take care that it isn’t too thin as it will run off the cake.
- Spread over the top sponge and let drizzle down the sides a little.
- While the icing is still wet decorate with glace cherries and toasted almonds.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.