Friday, June 19, 2009

Cherry Coffee Cake

Cherry Coffee Cake

Before I go on a trip, I like to cook what I call "clean the refrigerator" meals. In my head, I pretend that I'm being inspired by my ingredients, but really, I'm just in a mad rush to use up everything because I hate seeing food go to waste. I've actually been pretty good about it this week, so today, the tally of perishables in my refrigerator was: half a bag of cherries, two eggs and some milk on the bottom of the carton. HMMMMMM.......... Can you guess what I made with it?

Cherry Coffee Cake

Tomorrow, we are leaving for a whole week to a place where I anticipate reading at least three big, fat books and not wearing real shoes. It may not be everyone's idea of a perfect vacation, but I can't wait. I made this coffee cake to take with us on the drive, but the smell was so divine, so golden sweet and promising with its subtle notes of vanilla and baked cherries, and the crumb was so fine and so light, that we kind of ate half of it right away, hardly waiting for it to cool. Oops. I'm not sorry, though -- it was totally worth it. Have a lovely week, everyone! If there's an internet connection, I promise to check in!

Cherry Coffee Cake

Cherry Coffee Cake
via A Series Of Kitchen Experiments (check it out - wonderful blog! I simplified the recipe a little, so if you want to do the original recipe, please follow the link!)

1 and 1/2 cup of fresh cherries, halved and pitted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup of sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 350F and spray or butter an 8x8 square baking pan.

Pit and halve the cherries and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time and beat briefly, just to to combine. Add in vanilla extract and beat briefly to combine.

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together. With the mixer on low speed (or with a wooden spoon), add half the flour mixture and mix just to incorporate the flour. Do not over-mix the dough. Add milk and mix to combine. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix just to incorporate all the ingredients together.

Carefully, fold in the cherries.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the edges are golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

21 comments:

Finla said...

Enjoy the books in your holiday and i am sure it is a wonderful idea not wearing shoes.
Beautiful cake, i can imagine you guys enjoy this in your drive.

♥peachkins♥ said...

I am sure this cake is perfect to eat while sitting in a big comfy chair reading three big fat books and sipping coffee..

Manggy said...

That is an uncommon combination indeed, I'm intrigued! It does look good :) Have a great vacation!

Unknown said...

Enjoy your vacation (and the rest of this cake)!

Ivonne said...

Have a wonderful trip, Irene! Love the cherries ...

Elaine said...

Oh my, Irene. Oh my, oh my...it looks absolutely lovely. Enjoy! :)

Patsyk said...

Enjoy your trip! That coffee cake does look hard to resist!

Dewi said...

This cherry cake sound so good Irene!

the caked crusader said...

Ooh - this looks perfect for enjoying with a nice cup of tea. I love this kind of cake. Yum.

Anonymous said...

I have always wanted to be one of those cooks who could open the fridge and be inspired to make some award winning dish. In actuality, like you, I just don't want stuff to spoil or I'm to lazy to go shopping but want to cook/bake. Your recipe looks great and I bet it was totally delicious.

Cookie said...

Fresh cherries seem so unused in the baking world but they're perfectly tart and juicy just like any berries. This is a wonderful recipe and I'd definitely give it a try. I'm just not really looking forward to pitting all those cherries!

Jennifer said...

Beautiful cake!!!!

Have a wonderful trip :)

Ramya Kiran said...

Loved this cake, so moist and eye catching clicks. Yum Yum!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Yum, looks good! I like how it looks like the cherries didn't get all mushy.

Hope you have a safe and relaxing trip!
~ingrid

Y said...

The perfect cake to start a vacation with :)

katy said...

thank you for sharing this simple and lovely recipe. although i couldn't get my hands on any cherries during my midnight run to the store, i did snatch strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries and raspberries. and guess what... they all went into the cake ^_^ along with some chocolate chips. it came out fantastic. the cake is the perfect base for just about anything. i'm going to keep playing with it. i've got cherries now, and was thinking of adding some coconut.

baking is so much fun!

Irene said...

Cherry and coconut sounds absolutely divine! Please share how it worked out if you make it.

Erica said...

mmmmmmmmm looks yummy! I do the same thing! Its nice to make something that you can bring on the trip with you too!

Tess said...

I ran across this in my search for recipies that would use up my cherries, without requiring a trip to the store. This cake is LOVELY! I've put it on my list of favorites. I look forward to investigating your blog further.

Irene said...

Thanks very much! Glad you found my little piece of the blogoverse. :)

Alexandra Saréh said...

This was sooooooooooooo delicious!- and easy! I made it today myself with some freshly picked cherries from our tree in the garden- yummmm. Thank you for posting!