From Nigel's Kitchen Table
Sour Cherry Chocolate Cake
A moist chocolate sponge filled with dark chocolate chunks and tart sour cherries—simple to make and beautifully balanced.
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This sour cherry chocolate cake is just the best combination of a moist, fine crumb sponge, with dark chocolate chunks and tart sour cherries and it’s easy to make.
You might also like my sour cherry ricotta tart, cherry chocolate pots de créme or my sour cherry pudding recipe.
Contents
Ingredients
For this recipe, all you need are these ingredients:
- Sour cherries
- Light brown or demerara sugar
- Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.
- Eggs – bind the ingredients together and gives flavour.
- Ground almonds
- Vanilla extract or paste – to enhance the flavour.
Nigel Recommends
The Vanilla I Recommend
I recommend Taylor & Colledge vanilla products because they add a delicious depth of flavour while enhancing the other ingredients in the recipe. Choose from pure vanilla extract, vanilla paste or vanilla pods, depending on the recipe and the intensity of flavour you prefer.
- Plain or all-purpose flour – builds structure.
- Baking powder – is a chemical leavening and starts to work once it reaches a certain temperature during baking
- Dark or milk chocolate – choose your favourite chocolate for that beautiful rich flavour.
Chocolate recommendations: bars – Lindt Excellence dark 70% bar 100g, Montezuma’s darkside 51% bar 90g, Menier dark cooking chocolate 100g, Green and Black’s Organic dark Chocolate 100g, 1kg bags – Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut milk chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate.
Nigel Recommends
Don’t Skip the Salt
I always recommend adding a generous pinch of fine sea salt to your cakes. It balances the sweetness, softens any bitterness and brings out flavours such as chocolate, vanilla, fruit and spices. You should not taste the salt itself—it simply gives the finished cake greater depth and a more rounded flavour.
Variations
- Fruit: Instead of sour cherries try other fruits. Raspberries, strawberries, apples or pears make great alternatives.
Tools You’ll Need
- Pyrex Glass Measuring Jug, 1L – I think I have said it before that I am not a big fan of plastic, so I like this type of glass measuring jug for calculating my liquids.
- Electric hand whisk – I recommend the Breville Classic Combo Stand and Hand Mixer because it includes a generous 3.7-litre stainless steel bowl and a convenient stand, so you do not have to hold the mixer throughout use. You can find it and more of my favourite baking equipment in my Amazon Kitchen Equipment collection.
- Cake pan 20cm – These springform pans make removing cakes from them after baking a doddle. I personally tend to line them as often as possible to ensure that my cakes don’t break for added security.
Nutrition
Serving: one cake slice.
Nutrition information is provided as an estimate and may vary depending on the ingredients and portion size used.
Storage and Freezing
This easy cake keeps well for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: Stored in an airtight container suitable for freezing or cling wrap this cake will keep for up to 2-3 months.
Sour Cherry Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS LIST
- 300 g sour cherries (200 g pitted )
- 80 g butter (melted, plus more for greasing)
- 170 g light brown sugar
- 100 g ground almonds
- 2 medium eggs (100g total)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp of vanilla paste
- 100 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 50 g dark or milk chocolate
Preparation
- Sour cherries: Weigh the sour cherries and mix in 50 g of the brown sugar. Set aside.
- Grease or line a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper.
- Preheat the oven 180°C fan / 400°F / Gas 6.
- Cake mix: In a large bowl, beat the butter and the remaining sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in the ground almonds and vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Now add the baking powder, salt and flour. Mix until combined.
- Chop the chocolate into small chunks and add to the batter along with half of the sour cherries. Gently stir until they are evenly distributed.
- Spread the mixture into the cake tin and smooth the surface even.
- Scatter over the remaining sour cherries.
- Baking: Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Once cooled, remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve.
FROM MY KITCHEN TO YOURS
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