We were lured by the huge crates of English cherries at St Albans Market over the weekend. By the time we arrived home, the children had eaten a whole bag of cherries between themselves – in the back of the car – and yes, there were cherry juice stains everywhere. The second bag I had earmarked for a cherry crumble cake, made to a recipe my mum had given me over the phone a few days earlier. This is an easy cake that you can either make in a rectangular tin – I’d go for a 12″ x 9″ traybake tin, or as we did, a deep round tin. It depends whether you are in the mood for a rectangular cake or a round cake. We were in the mood for a round cake. Get the kids to crack the eggs into a bowl, measure out the ingredients or make the crumble mix while you get on with stoning the cherries – mine (8 & 5) can manage the crumble mix on their own. It’s a bit messy, but messy baking is fun. If you can’t find cherries, lots of other stone fruits work in this recipe – plums or apricots chopped in half with the stones removed. You can also make this with blueberries. I love the mess that cherries make. Almost as much as the mess the children make.
I used some cardamom Spice Drops to flavour my cake in addition to a little vanilla but this flavour is entirely optional. My friend, Gouri, gave me a couple of bottles of Spice Drops to try – you can buy them on Ocado in the UK. Spice Drops are an interesting little invention – they are concentrated extracts of the natural spice and they come in lots of flavours – including cardamom, cinnamon, lemongrass, peppermint, rose and many more – you can see the full range here.
Fresh Cherry Crumble Cake
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 8
An easy cake made with fresh English cherries and a crumble topping. I used some cardamom spice drops do give an extra dimension of flavour. You can also crush some fresh cardamom pods instead or leave the cardamom out and just use vanilla extract.
Ingredients
- 400g fresh cherries, pitted (or other stone fruit)
- For the crumble topping
- 50g/ 1/3 cup plain/all-purpose flour
- 50g/ ½ stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 30g/ ¼ cup icing/confectioners’ sugar
- For the cake batter
- 180g/1.5 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 130g/1 cup caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 drops cardamom Spice Drops (see notes) or the seeds of 6 green cardamom pods, crushed
- 200g/1.5 cups self-raising or all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to fan 160C/180C/gas 4. Using a little butter, grease and line a 20cm round cake tin, about 5cm deep or a rectangular traybake tin 12" by 9"
- Remove the stalks from the cherries, carefully slice each cherry in half and remove the stone. Keep the cherries to one side.
- Make the crumble topping by sifting the flour into a large bowl. Add the butter and icing sugar or confectioners’ sugar. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make a crumb-like mixture, then set it to one side while you make the cake batter.
- Whisk the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy (around five minutes using a stand mixer or a whisk), add the eggs in, one by one, and continue to mix well. Add the vanilla extract and cardamom drops or crushed cardamom pods, if using. Mix together well again.
- Sift in the flour and baking power and using a spoon, carefully stir the mixture until all the flour is incorporated.
- Pour the cake batter into your lined baking tin and flatten with the back of a spoon.
- Scatter the halved cherries onto the batter and press down gently.
- Scatter the prepared crumble mixture over the top of the cherries.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the crumble cake in the tin to cool and then remove and place onto a wire rack until you are ready to serve.
- Before serving, dust with a little extra icing/confectioners’ sugar.
- The cake will keep well in a tin for up to two days.
Courses Dessert
All you need once the cake is baked is a nice cup of tea and you’re all set for the afternoon.
If you have a go at baking this cake (and I hope you do) don’t forget to let me know.
Tag me on instagram @renbehan or on Twitter @RenBehan or on Facebook Ren BehanFood so I can see how it turned out.
I’m linking my bake up to Simple and in Season July and August.
Other fruity bakes that you may like to try:
- My Poppy Seed and Plum Cake Recipe
- My Cherry and Almond Traybake
- Sarah’s Five Minute No Butter Chocolate Cherry Cake
- Nazima’s Plum Crumble Tart
- Becca’s Blueberry Shortbread Bars
Happy Baking!
Doug says
Looks delicious! I’ve never made a crumb cake with cherries…it makes me want to pour a cup of coffee and have breakfast.
bakingaddict says
What a great way to use up the lovely fresh cherries. Snap indeed as I made a gooseberry crumble cake and now I want to make this one too!
Vanessa says
Looks absolutely gorgeous but before I start making this, I have a question: you say “self-rising or all-purpose flour” and also add baking powder. Is it self-rising and no baking powder or all-purpose + baking powder. I think it would matter if you used self-rising + baking powder as opposed to all purpose + baking powder. Thanks for clarifying!
Ren Behan says
Hi Vanessa – all-purpose flour is the same as self-raising flour here – i.e it has baking powder added. When I use self-raising flour in a cake, I still add a teaspoon of baking power as a boost. Sometimes the flour isn’t as fresh as it could be and so a little raising agent just helps the cake along a bit.
In the crumble topping, a plain flour with no raising agent is fine as we don’t need the crumble topping to rise. I’ve suggested two different flours however, if you are not in the UK and are just using all-purpose flour, this is fine for both the cake batter and the topping.
Sally - My Custard Pie says
I make a Tamasin Day Lewis apple crumble cake which is divine but hadn’t thought of using other fruit. Will try with cherries if we ever manage to save any from being eaten fresh and whole.
Ren Behan says
Ooh lovely I like Tamasin’s recipes. I think Nigel has a good one too for a crumble cake. Happy baking x
Corina says
It looks gorgeous. I absolutely love crumble cakes but the thought of stoning all those cherries is a bit intimidating!
Ren Behan says
You could buy a cherry pitter or stoner? My cherries were so soft that by the time I chopped them in half the stones practically fell out with a little squish!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Ooh this looks just yummy. I make a similar cake with apples, though the crumble on top is the same mixture as the cake underneath, so it’s super simple – the crumble topping cooks much crispier than the cake underneath, it’s like magic 🙂 I love the idea of using cherries, one of my favourite fruits and I recently acquired a cherry pitter which I am yet to use!
Ren Behan says
Thanks Becca that sounds lovely too. Yes my topping isn’t so crispy but it’s still good x
Sarah Maison Cupcake says
That looks amazing! I love deep dark cherries and they always remind me of picking them as a child from the tree my grandfather had planted as a boy. Must get my cherry fix whilst they’re in season!
Ren Behan says
Yes we had a cherry tree too and there are a few here on my road in St Albans!