One of my favourite things about living in Dubai is that it is such a diverse international community. I have been trying to decide what to do with the blog while I am here (British seasonal and frugal food doesn’t quite fit) and I think that collecting recipes from around the world may be the answer.
To start me off my Czech friend Tereza has taught me how to make her famously delicious cherry cake. She uses a special flour which she brings over from the Czech Republic, however I have tested the recipe with ‘normal’ plain flour and it still works very well.
Tereza tells me that there are three basic types of flour in the Czech Republic:
- fine (hladka– which is ‘normal’ white flour),
- semi-rough (polohruba– the one in the picture, used for the Cherry Cake), and
- rough (hrubá– close to semolina).
Give the recipe a try and let me know how you get on!
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, separated
- 200g caster sugar
- 150ml vegetable oil
- a drop of vanilla essence
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 100g plain flour
- the zest of one Lemon
- a couple of handfuls of frozen cherries, defrosted
Method
Don’t forget to take the cherries out of the freezer! Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.
Whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla essence, half of the sugar and the oil. Next whisk the egg whites, adding the rest of the sugar until you have ‘soft peaks’ (as though you were making meringue).
Mix together the flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the egg yolk mixture and fold in, adding a splash of milk until it is the consistency of thick custard.
Fold in the egg whites along with the lemon zest. The lemon smells divine!
Pour the mixture into a ceramic oven dish. Coat half of the cherries in flour so that they don’t sink too much and put them on top of the mixture, followed by the un-coated cherries.
Bake in centre of oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into pieces.
This wonderfully light cake can be served as a dessert with cream or with a cup of coffee.
Kitty's Store-Cupboard 