As the summer is winding up I thought I would make the most of the summer fruit. A friend's birthday warranted another excuse to bring out the baking scales. A great source of food wisdom is my friend Sarah. Somehow knowledge about cooking abounds from her mind. She pointed out the fail-safe guide of equal parts eggs, self-raising flour, butter and sugar. It is sort of a Madeira cake or 'Quatre Quarts' cake that the french tend to enjoy. It's denser than your average cake so great to eat as a loaf cake with some fruit (blueberries are also a great replacement).
Ingredients:
4 eggs (work on each egg weighing around 50g)
200g self-raising flour
200g butter
200g sugar
One punnet of cherries, pitted and halved
We did add a touch of baking powder as we were using a wide dish to bake the cake in.
Make it in the usual cake manner, creaming the sugar and butter together, blending in one egg at a time and then sifting in the flour. Place the cherries in the bottom of your baking tin and pour the batter over the top.
Place in the oven on the middle shelf at 170C/340F and depending on your cake tin bake for around 35-45 minutes. You will want the cake to be firm when it comes out of the oven and the butter will ensure it stays moist.
Whilst it is baking you can make the compote and whipped cream. For this all you will need is another punnet of cherries (stones removed of course) with a tablespoon of sugar and half a lime, cooked with a splash of water. Let it simmer down over a medium heat until the syrup is released. Serve it warm with the cake and it goes excellently with some whipped cream.
Decadent though it may be, add a small amount of icing sugar (confectioners sugar) to your cream before whipping it to get as much joy out of your afternoon treat as possible.
You can eat the cake warm or cold, morning, noon or night and it will be great.
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