I have cherries to burn, can you tell? I am almost at the end of my 4kg box so thought hey, why not give a cherry cake a whirl?
I made this for my friend's birthday morning tea at work and raided the park next to our building for the remnants of the season's flowers to decorate it with.
This would also make a great Valentines/Galentines day cake if that sorta thing floats your boat. I personally am more a fan of telling Bae he is great everyday than restricting it to just one day a year. But hey if someone delivered me a cute floral cake this Sunday I wouldn't complain. Actually I would, I am trying to cut down on the cake and ice cream but we have just entered birthday season at work so the morning teas seem to be endless. I would be grateful for a bouquet of celery or maybe a posie of brocolli.
This cake is basically my raspberry coconut cake but with cherries instead of raspberries. Quite the plot twist don't you think? I am going to experiment using other fruits as well, I feel like blueberries would be a good idea, thoughts?
Cherry Blossom Cake (Cherry and Coconut Cake)
Makes a 2 layer 15cm cake
For the cakes
175g butter softened
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 ½ cups ground almond
½ cup long thread coconut
½ cup rice flour (or normal flour)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup halved pitted cherries (frozen will do just fine)
¼ cup extra threaded coconut
For the icing
125g cream cheese, softened
40g butter, softened
3 or so cups icing sugar (a little more if you want a stiff and pipable icing)
Juice of half to a full lemon
To decorate
Cherries
Threaded coconut
Freeze dried raspberries
Almonds or almond slices
Edible flowers
Lemon rind
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and grease and line two 15cm tins with baking paper.
Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon rind until pale and fluff. Beat in the eggs one at a time and give the mixture a mighty good beat so that it becomes airy and voluminous. Fold in the ground almond and coconut then sieve in the rice flour and baking powder and fold that on too.
Divide the batter between the two tins, it works out to be about 300g in each tin. Sprinkle the cherries over the tops followed by a light sprinkling of that extra coconut. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean. My oven has been playing up lately so these took closer to 50 minutes each. Check at the 35 minute mark and add more time as you see fit - every oven is different! Remove from the oven and leave to cool fully in the tins.
To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese and the butter until smooth. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice until all is added. Beat on high so that it becomes fluffy and smooth. Add more lemon juice to make a runnier and more spreadable icing or more icing sugar if you want it stiffer to be able to pipe it on.
Sandwich the two cakes together with cream cheese icing. I added some chopped cherries to the inside of this one. Spread some more over the top and swirl around until you reach the desired effect. Top with the toppings of your choice.
Enjoy! x
