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Cherry Cream Cake

Cherry Cream Cake

A fluffy vanilla sponge, filled with cherry cream and finished with Swiss meringue buttercream.
Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

For the cake

  • 225 g unsalted butter
  • 225 g caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 250 g self-raising flour sifted
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 100 ml full-fat milk

For the filling

  • 350 g pitted fresh cherries
  • 50 g caster sugar
  • 1/2 lemon juiced
  • 100 g cherry compote I like Bonne Maman
  • 200 ml double cream
  • 1 tbsp vanilla sugar or caster sugar

For the Swiss meringue buttercream

  • 115 g egg whites about 3 eggs
  • 200 g granulated sugar
  • 175 g unsalted butter softened but still cool, cut into small cubes
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • Pinch fine sea salt

Instructions
 

To make the cake

  • Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F. Grease two 20cm cake tins, and line with baking parchment.
  • Cream the butter and sugar with an electric whisk and beat in the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that each one is incorporated before you add the next.
  • Sift in your flour and baking powder, and mix for 1 minute. Add the milk and beat again until everything is nicely combined.
    N.B. Make sure you don’t over-beat the batter as this will result in a heavy cake.
  • Divide the mixture between your two tins evenly and smooth the tops with the back of a spatula.
  • Bake for ~35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tins, before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cold, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge overnight.

To make the filling

  • If you’re making your own compote, pit your cherries and add them to a small saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice. Over a low heat, allow to bubble away for 10-15 minutes until softened, sticky and juicy. Mix this with 100g Bonne Maman cherry compote, then set aside.
  • Whip your double cream with the tablespoon of caster sugar until you get stiff peaks.
    N.B. Be careful not to over-beat!
  • Fold the cherry mixture into your cream so that you have streaks of cherry juice but it’s not fully combined. Pop in the fridge until ready to use.

To make the Swiss meringue buttercream

  • Squeeze some lemon juice onto a piece of kitchen towel, then make sure your bowl and whisks are completely clean, dry and wiped down with lemon juice {you can also use white wine vinegar}.
  • Remove from the heat and begin whisking your whites immediately using an electric whisk or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the mixture until stiff glossy peaks form and the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. This will take at least 10-15 minutes.
    N.B. If you’re having trouble getting stiff peaks, stop whisking and place your bowl – uncovered – in the fridge for 10 minutes, then remove from the fridge and whisk again. This has always worked for me!
  • If the bowl and meringue still feel warm, wait until both cool to room temperature before adding any butter – otherwise it’ll melt! Add the butter 1 cube / 1 tablespoon at a time, making sure you wait for the butter to be fully incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, add the vanilla and salt and mix again.
  • Your meringue buttercream should be thick, creamy, and silky smooth. Pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes to solidify a bit before assembling your cake.

To assemble the cake

  • Level out the top of your cake, the slice both in half horizontally, so you have four layers.
  • Sandwich the layers together with your cherry cream.
  • Now you want to crumb coat your cake. Firstly, pipe a small amount of buttercream onto your board or card and place the first sponge on top. This acts like a “glue” to make sure your cake doesn’t move or wobble as you ice it, or slide all over the place.
  • You can either pipe or use a tablespoon to add buttercream around the cake. Using a palette knife, spread it out across the sides and top, making sure the cake is completely covered.
  • Now you need to neaten things up a bit: place your scraper so it is only just touching the edge and carefully pull it all the way around the cake to get a uniform finish. You don’t want to remove lots of the buttercream here, just even it out.
    N.B. This is where a turntable is really useful, but you can do this without one.
  • Use your palette knife to remove any excess off the top by bringing it from the edge to the middle. It doesn’t have to look perfect as you will be covering it up with another layer. Chill the cake in the fridge or freezer until the crumb coat has set hard {around 30 minutes to 1 hour}.
  • When it’s set, cover your cake in the remaining icing, using your scraper to even everything out until you’re happy with how it looks. You can choose whether you want a more “naked” look, or a thick layer of buttercream.
  • Top with cherries to decorate, then slice and enjoy!

Notes

I like to use Bonne Maman's Cherry Compôte for this recipe. If you don't want to make your own compote from scratch, then up the quantity of a pre-bought version to 200g. 
Keyword cake, cherry, cream, sponge, vanilla