Cherry-Vanilla Tea Cake with Vanilla Sugar

I love cherry and vanilla and was deeply attracted to this cake when I saw this recipe in the book, Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild. Thus, I've suggested baking this cake with my two baking buddies, Lena, from Frozen wings and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours for our 17th bake-along.

Apart from just baking according to this recipe, I've also tried baking this cake in a form of cherry vanilla cupcakes with a slight twist. I've created a glossy version of cherry vanilla cupcakes using this similar cake mix but without adding any cherries inside. Instead, I've made a cherry sauce with the fresh cherries and used the sauce to create a glossy topping on these cupcakes. I reckon that both cake and cupcakes are fantastic, the basic cake mix is very moist and they are all very delicious to eat. 

Watching vanilla sugar melting on both my cherry cake and cupcakes...

A closer look of the glossy cherry sauce...

Look how moist this cake! All are so yummy!

Here's the recipe from Bon Appetit website or the book, Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild
(with my modifications and notes in blue)



Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda (replaced by baking powder)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (I didn't add this)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup sour cream

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1 cup canned pitted sweet cherries, halved, drained
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise 

2 tbsp powdered sugar

(replaced by 2 tbsp store-bought vanilla sugar from a Lygon spice shop plus 1 tbsp powdered sugar)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour 10-inch springform pan. 

Sift first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla extract. Transfer 2 tbsp dry ingredients to small bowl. On low speed, beat half of remaining dry ingredients into butter mixture, then mix in sour cream and lemon peel. Beat in remaining half of dry ingredients. Mix cherries into reserved 2 tbsp dry ingredients; fold cherries into batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top with spoon. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, using small sharp knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into small bowl. Mix in 1 tbsp sugar, rubbing with fingertips to distribute seeds. Add powdered sugar and rub again.

Sift vanilla sugar over hot cake and cool. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake; remove pan sides. Do ahead can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.

Note: Using half of the recipe, I've baked a 14cm round cake at 160°C fan forced for 30 min and use the excess batter to bake 4 extra cupcakes. 

This is how I bake my cherry cupcakes:

My cherry sauce (for 4 cupcakes):

8-10 pitted medium sized fresh cherries

1/2 tsp cornflour, well-mixed in 1/4 cup water

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Combine all except lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook in low-medium heat until the sauce is slightly thickened. Use the sauce when it is completely cooled.

Distribute the excess cake batter evenly into the cupcakes cases. Bake the cupcakes at 160°C fan forced for the initial 10-15 min to semi-bake the batter. Remove the cupcakes from the oven. Distribute the cherry sauce evenly over the cupcakes and return the cupcakes to bake for another 8-10 min until the surface is slightly glossy.

Sift vanilla sugar over hot cake and cool.Transfer cupcakes to rack and allow to cool completely.

Last but not least, I would like to thank a little helper for this bake...that's my cherry chomper. Thanks for chomping and pitting the cherries. LOL.

My Cherry Chomper

Happy Baking.

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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.