Be My Guest - Cherry Cake

Some blogs, I must say, attract me due to the nature of the pictures. It must be because I am not good at it, so I love to look at the pictures and "imagine" if I could do it. A few of the blogs who I have got hooked to due to this factor are Meena's, Rekha's, Shree's and Shibi's. When I asked Meena about the tricks in photography, she told me, "practice, practice, practice!" Now frankly speaking, I don't have the patience nor the time to practice and I guess that will effect the forward movement of my blog. I am seriously considering putting in time for improving my skills but I know with my current restrictions, I may not be able to do so, but at least by looking at all your blogs, I will collect ideas and try to put it forward, what say? ;)

So, such a blog that made me feel in love with the pictures was Anupa's Palaharam. Just have a look at her array of recipes - be it the homemade icecream or the fish patty burgers, absolutely delicious in sight!!! The time I eyed her blog and a few of her posts, I just popped in the question as to whether she would be interested in doing a guest post. I was so glad that she agreed to. And she gave me something that is so apt to my blog name - how sweet is she!! So there you go, she emailed me this sumptuous looking cherry cake. Why don't we go over to her and see what Anupa has to offer? :)


Hi there,

I am Anupa who blogs at "Palaharam". Currently, I am staying in Phoenix, US with my husband. Like many of you my interest in cooking began post marriage. Back in Bangalore, when I prepared our first onam sadya, having taken the day off , spending the entire day in the kitchen and leaving my husband's jaw dropped, I knew I had changed - I had developed a liking for cooking. I guess few things inherited(my mom is a great cook) start showing up only when it is time. My blog was started less than a year ago when we came down to US after I had given up my job and I had so much free time in hand. I am so glad that I did start one. Because this blogging world has gifted me with so many like minded friends. Even though hardly anyone of us have met in person, we talk as if we have know each other for years. I can spend hours going through different blogs and browsing for recipes and all the more, I keep learning so much from them. I am proud to be part of the Bloggers family :).

Few weeks back when I saw a message from Rafeeda asking, if I would like to do a guest post for her, I didn't think 'No' as an answer. Well why would I , since this is my first guest post ever and all the more when it is being asked by a such a sweetheart like Rafeeda, you cannot deny it :). I am so excited to be doing a guest post for her.Thank you Rafeeda for this opportunity.

I have known Rafeeda through the blogging world. A person who is so active, friendly and an interactive blogger. I sometime wonder how she finds time to manage a job and a blog along with her family of sweet little kids. Since this is my first guest post, I wanted to get it right for her. So I asked Rafeeda to guide me and she indeed left me to pick up anything of my choice. Isn't she generous? While I was wondering what to make for the guest post, I was sure I should make something sweet for her blog - The Big Sweet Tooth :). So here it is a Cherry cake that I tried out to sent it virtually to sweet Rafeeda. Recipe was adapted from Joy of Baking. Hope you all like it. 

Cherry Cake
 
Ingredients
1.     1/2 cup or 113 gms of salted butter
2.     350 gms of fresh cherries - rinse, dried and pitted 
3.     1 cup of all purpose flour
4.     1/2 cup of almond meal
5.     1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
6.     2 large eggs
7.     3/4 cup of granulated white sugar
8.     1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
9.     1/3 cup of milk

Method
·  In a saucepan melt the butter and remove it from the stove. Let it cool down to room temperature.
·  Preserve few cherries, having cut them into half to be placed on the top of the cake during baking. Cut the remaining cherries into quarters and sprinkle them with all purpose flour just to form a coating over them.
·  In a bowl, whisk the flour, almond meal and baking powder. This would be referred to as the flour mixture.
·  In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar untill thick and light colored. Beat in the vanilla extract. 
·  With a spatula or wired whisk, fold in the cooled butter and milk just until incorporated. Now fold in the flour mixture just untill moistened.
·  Fold in the cherries that were cut into quarters.
·  Preheat the oven to 400 F/ 200 C.
·  Grease a 9 inch spring foam pan with butter or non stick spray. Pour the batter into it and smooth the top with a spatula.
·  Bake for 15 minutes and then remove from the oven and quickly arrange the remaining cherries on top of the cake with the cut side down. 
·  Place the cake back in the oven and bake for 15- 20 minutes or untill golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Tips

1.     If the cake seems to be over browning, cover it with a piece of aluminum foil for the rest of the baking period.


Thank you so much, Anupa for sending me that lovely little cake. I can literally feel the taste in my tongue!!! :)

Have a lovely weekend, friends...

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