Serendipity Cake Companies Ultimate Cherry Bakewell Cake
Created by Alison Tregoning at Serendipity Cake Company. Since lockdown I have been reviewing my cake recipes, tweaking here and there, creating new flavour combinations and generally letting my imagination run away with itself. I have also started selling cupcakes with online payment and contactless delivery, I say this because it was the cupcake deliveries that have led to this reimagined Cherry Bakewell Cake.
I have included this cake on my cake flavour menu for some time but it has not been through a review in ages. This week I decided to add a Cherry Bakewell cupcake as a special to my cupcake deliveries. After a slow start, it out performed all my classic flavours and the feedback was amazing. Me being me instead of thinking that’s a winner lets leave it as it is, I wondered how I could make it better.
To cut a very long story short, the cupcakes have remained the same delicious recipe as always, mainly because the dynamic of the ingredients in larger cakes did not suit the small cupcakes. But my experimenting has led to what I think is a good improvement to my already yummy larger cakes. It all lies in the addition of Marzipan into the cake batter which has led to a moist, almond flavour explosion of a cake. If you love almonds and cherries look no further than this recipe!
The secret to this recipe is Stork soft margarine, I can imagine at this point many of you deciding that this cake can’t be any good if it’s not made with butter. Well I started in this industry too many years ago to count and I can assure you there are cakes which are best with butter; madeira; vanilla; lemon cakes and anything with banana in it but good old Stork margarine excels in some cakes and this is one of them. Butter can dry sponge cakes out, which is why many bakers use drizzles to help keep the cake moist, margarine is said to keep the sponge soft and help achieve an even rise and I agree!
So during this very difficult time of lockdown my advice to you is lock yourself in the kitchen, play this fabulously bawdy but fun song In spite of Ourselves by John Prine and Iris DeMent and lose yourself in the cathartic art of baking.
A Little information about the Ingredients
As with all my recipes there are some ingredients that make the cake better. Do use Stork margarine instead of butter. I know this feels strange but it works. Use Almond extract not essence. Extracts are taken straight from the source and essence is generally manufactured. For example Almond Extract is a natural product, it has a lot fuller and stronger flavour and is taken straight from Almonds which have been mixed with alcohol and water.
A few tips and advice before starting baking
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, including milk, margarine and eggs
- Sift your flour, really? yes, it does make a difference.
- Make sure that your marzipan is mixed into a paste without lumps
AuthorAlison TregoningCategoryCakesDifficultyBeginnerCherry Bakewell Cake - This is a rich moist almond sponge cake with marzipan baked into the cake. Filled with cherry jam and almond buttercream, this has all the flavours of the iconic tart. Totally yummy.
All ingredients need to be at room temperature. Grease and line with baking parchment 2 x 8 inch sandwich tins. Pre heat your oven to: Fan oven 160°C (325°F). Conventional oven 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4
Cut the marzipan into small pieces and add 1 tablespoon of boiling water, kneed the water into the marzipan until the water has been absorbed then beat throughly with an electric mixer, you should have a smooth paste. Add the margarine and mix thoroughly with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat again until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy, the mixture should drop easily off your wooden spoon when tapped.
Beat your eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add the almond extract and milk. Add your eggs slowly to your creamed marzipan, sugar and margarine mixture, incorporating the egg fully and beating well with an electric mixer.
Sieve your flour and baking powder together, add the ground almonds and stir together. Add this to your creamed mixture and fold in carefully with a metal spoon so as not to beat out any air in the cake. I find a figure of 8 movement really good to fold all the ingredients together.
Place equal amounts into your greased and lined sandwich tins. Level off the top with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle one of the cakes with your soft brown sugar and flaked almonds this will form a crunch topping to your cake.
Bake the cakes in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes, until the cake is springy to the touch and a fine skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. You should also notice that the cake has shrunk away from the sides slightly. remove from the oven and allow to cool completely
Beat the butter for the filling in a large bowl until pale, slowly add the icing sugar. before using your electric whisk use a spoon to combine the butter and icing sugar. If you don't do this you will have a massive sugar dust cloud. Add the almond extract and boiling water and mix well with an electric whisk.
Your cake base is the cake without the crunchy topping, spread your cherry jam generously over your base cake, then turning your top cake upside down spread generously with almond buttercream and place the buttercream side down onto the cherry jam leaving your crunchy topping on the top. Make sure you spread right up to the edge of the cake with your jam and buttercream because you want to squidge them together and have the filling slightly oozing out the side.
Ingredients
Recent Comments