I like cherries and I like cakes. So last weekend I made a cherry and almond cake. It’s very easy to make and was soft and yummy, so I’m sharing the recipe with you:

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First, measure out the following ingredients – put them on plates:</strong/em>

• 100g soft butter or margarine
• 100g sugar
• 100g self-raising flour
• 100g ground almond

You’ll also need:</strong/em>

• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• About half a kilo of fresh cherries
• About 3 Tbsp of almond flakes

Then you’re ready to bake:</strong/em>

1. Take the stones out of the cherries using your fingers. Do this in a large bowl and wear an apron, because the juice splashes everywhere. Then measure out 300g of cherries –  eat the rest!!!
2. Turn the oven on and set the oven temperature to 180°C. Put a little butter in a round cake tin and rub the sides and base with it. Line the base with baking paper.
3. Put  the batter into a mixing bowl, add the sugar. Mix them together with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until you a light cream.  Crack the eggs one by one and them to the cream. Mix well before you add the next one. Mix in the vanilla extract.
4. Now fold in gently the flour, baking powder and the ground almond. When you get a smooth batter, fold in half of the cherries. Spoon this into the cake tin –  move the tin around for the batter to spread out evenly.
5. Scatter over the remaining cherries, push them down a bit into the mix. Scatter the almonds on the top and sprinkle some caster sugar too if you want.
6. Put the tin into the middle of the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes until it’s golden brown.
7. Ask an adult to put a skewer into the middle of the cake – if it comes out clean, it’s ready. If not, it needs to go back to the oven for 5 more minutes.
8. Let the cake cool in the tin, then turn it out onto a plate.
9. Sprinkle icing sugar (using a tea strainer or small sieve) on the top just before you serve it.

Tips

• If you like cinnamon you can sprinkle some on the top with the icing sugar (or caster sugar) before baking it.
• Keep the cake in a cake tin, under a lid –  the next day it will be juicy and yummy!
• I made this cake with dairy-free spread and you can use gluten-free flour mixture too.
• You can take this cake to a picnic or have it at a party.
• I used a 20 cm round cake tin, but you can use a square one too.

I hope you’ll enjoy this cake as much as I have!