Our kitchen garden cook Melanie Johnson provides a recipe using some of the best fruit of the season.
‘The fleeting season for home grown cherries should be cherished,’ says our kitchen garden cook, Melanie Johnson.
They’ll brighten up everything from chia seed puddings and overnight oats to salads (and are particularly good in combination with hazelnuts and feta).
This cake, through, is a real crowd-pleaser that you can bake and keep for several days… though you’re made of sterner stuff than we are if you can resist demolishing the lot in one sitting.
Recipe: Cherry-and-pistachio yoghurt cake
Ingredients
- 225g unsalted butter, softened
- 275g golden caster sugar
- 4 free-range eggs
- 1tspn vanilla
- 50g Greek yoghurt
- 275g self-raising flour
- 150g pistachio paste (available online or use almond butter)
- 400g cherries, halved and pitted
For the glaze
- 250g icing sugar
- 6 cherries, squashed to release their juice and pretty pink colour
- A splash of milk if needed
- Cherries and pistachios to decorate
Method
Preheat your oven to 160˚C fan/180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, then add the vanilla and yoghurt. Fold through the flour until just combined.
Pour half the mixture into the loaf tin, then spoon over the pistachio paste in an even layer, followed by two-thirds of the cherries. Pour the rest of the mixture over and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Once baked, cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the glaze, add the icing sugar to a bowl and the squeezed cherry juice. Mix well, adding a splash of milk if needed to make a thick, but pourable glaze. Pour the glaze all over the cake and, before it sets, scatter over the remaining cherries and a handful of chopped pistachios.
Slice and serve. This cake will keep for up to five days in an airtight container.
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