Cherry and Vanilla Cake with Walnuts

Well, here I am again. It's been almost a month, I know. But, you guys, there's just so much going on at the moment, I'm having a hard time catching up with everything, let alone take some time for blogging. And I've stopped to squeeze that in just because I think I have to. Baking cakes in a hurry usually leads to unsatisfying results and to uninspired photos which are not worth posting. But today is a slow day. One of those rainy sundays. Perfect occasion to take up blogging again. Here comes a cake I created from several recipes in one of my favorite books. I wanted to bake something with cherries. And you know me by now, I always have to add spices. This time, I went for vanilla because that goes so well with cherries. The sour cream in the dough renders this cake moist and the walnuts give it a crunch. Crumbles on top, now who doesn't love that?!

Recipe
(slightly adapted from one of my new favorites: The Hummingbird Bakery - Süsse Sünden)

190g soft butter, plus some more for greasing the pan
190g sugar
3 eggs
190g flour, plus some for the pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
25g sour cream
seeds of one vanilla pod
ca. 100g cherries, pitted, halved
50g walnuts, coarsely chopped

For the crumble:
25g flour
10g cold butter
15g sugar
20g chopped walnuts


Preheat the oven to 170°C (convection oven 150°C). Grease a 20cm cake tin and dust with flour.

Put all the ingredients for the crumble into a small bowl and rub together with your fingers until you have crumbles. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one by one. Scrape down the bowl with a ladle from time to time.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the flour to the fluffy batter in two portions. When all is well combined, add sour cream and vanilla. Then, add the walnuts and incorporate with a ladle. In the end, add the cherries.

Fill your dough into the prepared tin. Scatter the crumble over your cake. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 50 minutes. Test if the cake is done by inserting a wooden skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. Let cool in the tin first. Then, release from the tin and let cool completely.

Rhubarb and Almond Muffins

So I gave some of my photos a second chance. Remember, I told you last time that I have become quite a stickler when it comes to my food photos. This morning though, I browsed through last month's pictures again and thought what a pity it was that I haven't posted these delicious muffins. And I even discovered some photos that, at second glance, I liked quite much. So here they come. Almond and rhubarb - winner combination. And the almond topping adds a sweet crunch to those wonderfully tender and moist muffins.

Recipe 

(available in German: here)

for the dough:

400g rhubarb

150g sugar

100g butter

125g flour

100g ground almonds

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

100 sour cream or crème fraiche

for the topping:

50g butter

50g sugar

50g heavy cream

100g slivered almonds

For 12-16 muffins.

Wash and peel the rhubarb. Cut into pieces of about 0.5 - 1cm. Put in a bowl and mix with 2 tablespoons of sugar.

For the dough, melt butter in a small pan over low heat. Take the pan away from the heat and let the butter cool a bit. In a bowl, mix flour with the ground almonds and the baking powder.

For the topping, pour heavy cream, sugar and butter into a pan, let melt together and cook for about a minute. Add slivered almonds and let cook for further one or two minutes, until the mixture is not too liquid anymore.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line your muffin pan with paper cases.

In a bowl, mix melted butter and remaining sugar with an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs, one after the other. Then, add sour cream.

With a ladle, fold in your flour mixture. Drain the rhubarb pieces, then add to the dough and mix. Fill your dough into the prepared muffin cases. Add a bit of topping onto each muffin.

Bake for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown. If the almond topping browns too much, cover with aluminium foil. Then, take out of the oven and let cool.