Cherry Season

It's cherry season !  I love cherries, so shiny, tender and sweet.  Last season I was contacted by a lovely lady called Liz Mount who owns an English Cherry Farm in Aspley Guise Milton Keynes. 

Liz asked if I would bake her a cherry cake for a photographic shoot for their new website.  She dropped off a lovely stash of cherries to my bakery.  The resulting cake looked amazing and is now on their website. www.englishcherry.co.uk 



I was excited that their cherries were ready to be picked last week, Liz kindly dropped a crate of cherries over to the Bakery as I had a recipe that I wanted to try out.

After eating half of them as nature intended (perfectly tender and sweet), I plucked all the fresh green stalks from the remaining cherries and used them in three different ways.

Cherry Bakewell Victoria




Cherry Coulis
400g Cherries
100g Caster Sugar

Simmer gently over a low heat until thick and reduced.
Remove stones and blend with a stick blender.
Leave to cool into a jammy goo.

for the cake:
2 x 8"sandwich tins greased and lined
225g butter
225g caster sugar
165g self raising flour
60g ground almonds
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking powder
5 medium free range eggs

With a hand mixer blend all ingredients together until light and fluffy.
Transfer to tins and bake for 30 mins at 170 C.
Remove from tins and cool completely.

for the cherry buttercream:
175g butter
350g icing sugar
half of the cherry coulis

Beat the butter & icing sugar together until light & fluffy
add half of your cherry coulis and beat again.

Spread half of the buttercream over one half of the cake, spread the remaining cherry coulis over the buttercream and place other sponge on top.

Top the cake with other half of buttercream, toasted almonds and fresh cherries ! Enjoy

Cherry Vodka

Place 400g fresh cherries in sterilised kilner jar, pour over 160g caster sugar and then top up with 500ml vodka.

Shake well.

Store in dark place and shake often.

Leave for at least 3 months, longer the better.

Haven't made this before so I will let you know how it tastes in a few months, and what I decide to do with the cherries !

Cherry Smoothie

I love smoothies, quick way of packing nutrients into your body.  I love the colours that they produce too !

Banana
Handful of Stoned Fresh English Cherries
Greek Yogurt

AND BLEND !

Think I will have to visit the cherry farm before the season is over, as I need some more.