When we start seeing the grocery stores’ shelves packed full of cherries WE KNOW festive season is around the corner!

We’ve teamed up with the lovely team over at Cherry Time™ to bring you a picnic-worthy Cherry Cake chock-full of the seasons bounty. To make things even sweeter, their website has JUST opened for cherry orders so the timing couldn’t be more perfect…

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE RECIPE PDF!

CHERRY TIME™ Picnic Cake

Makes one 20cm x 28cm slab cake | serves 10 – 12 | Prep: 45min | Baking: 60min | Ready in 3hrs

–

INGREDIENTS

–

CHERRY CAKE

• 490g Castor Sugar
• 160ml Sunflower Oil
• 4 Eggs
• 7.5ml Vanilla Extract
• 170g Sour Cream
• 455g Cake Flour
• 25ml Baking Powder
• 5ml Salt
• 240ml Full Cream Milk
• 4g Lemon Zest
• 500g CHERRY TIME cherries
• 2.5ml Pink colouring, gel

–

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 225g Butter, salted + room temperature
• 200g Icing Sugar, sifted
• 5ml Vanilla Extract
• 90g Lemon Curd, optional
• 550g Cream Cheese, room temperature

–

DECOR (OPTIONAL)

Edible flowers

Crushed meringue

METHOD:

FOR THE CHERRY CAKE:

–

Preheat the oven to 165°C.

Line the base and sides of a 20 x 28cm rectangle baking pan with greaseproof paper.

Pitt and weigh out 300g of cherries – of which 150g is to be chopped fine and 150g to be roughly chopped.

Keep the remaining whole cherries with stems for decorating the final cake.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, sunflower oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed until the eggs and oil are well incorporated and the batter is lighter in colour, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Next, mix in the sour cream and beat until well combined. Add half the flour followed by the baking powder and salt, and beat on low speed while  pouring in half of the milk and mix just until the flour starts to incorporate.

Finally add the remaining flour, mixing on low speed while pouring in the remaining milk and beating until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the pink food colouring, lemon zest and finely chopped cherries and stir through batter from the bottom to the top to ensure it’s well mixed.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan, scatter the chunky cherries on top and slightly press them into the batter. Place the baking pan into the oven to bake.

Test the cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, your cake is done. This cake takes about 1 hour to bake but we like to start checking it at

45 minutes. 

Feel free to split the batter into 2 pans if you like – these layers will bake quicker and we would check them from 25 minutes for doneness.

Once baked, remove from the oven to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

–

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

–

Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of your mixer, scraping down the sides to ensure that there are no hard lumps.

Add the optional lemon curd and mix in well.

Spoon the cream cheese into the bowl with the mixer running on low. Allow to JUST be incorporated. Do not over mix – this will make the filling become runny. Once well-combined and lump-free you can use it straight away.

*If not using immediately store the frosting covered at room temperature for 6 hours or in the fridge for 3 days. Get chilled frosting to room temperature and mix by hand to soften until a spreadable consistency. 

TO DECORATE:

–

Cover the top and sides of the cooled cherry cake placed onto a cake board or serving platter in lashings of cream cheese frosting. Pipe a few swirls of cream cheese frosting, scatter edible flowers and crushed meringue on top before finishing off with beautiful whole cherries!

–

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE RECIPE PDF!

Happy baking, Cakelettes – and don’t forget to tag us and @sweet_cherrytime on Instagram when you bake your Cherry Time™ Picnic Cake! 🍒

Stay Sweet,

The SLH Gurls ❤️