A fluffy Gluten Free Cherry and Almond Cake with fresh cherries and dollops of jam. So tasty!
Fresh cherries are so tasty right now!!
I remember my mum coming home with paper bags of cherries when I was little and it was so exciting. They were expensive, so a bit of a rare treat. We’d sit on the sofa and eat the lot, nibbling around the stone. If you could eat all the flesh whilst leaving the stone attached the stem there was a real sense of achievement!
I still see them as a treat even now, but only when they come in paper bags. The ones sealed in plastic cartons just aren’t the same.
I attempted to use my cherry stoner for this cake. Man that’s one fiddly job! Am I missing the knack or are my hands supposed be be dyed red by the time I’ve finished?
You can use the tinned variety (the ones in the canned cherry pie mix are nice) if you don’t want to de-stone all those cherries!
This is an adapted version of the rhubarb and amaretti cake I made a couple of months ago. I loved the tender, crumbly cake so much I decided to play around with a gluten free version. Since there’s only a little flour in the rhubarb cake, swapping it out like-for-like with gluten free flour makes no difference to how good the cake tastes. Of course, you can use regular flour if you don’t need a gluten free version.
Serve this cake warm with ice cream, or cool with cream (or on it’s own as a tinfoil-wrapped handbag snack – yes I did that).
The Gluten Free Cherry and Almond Cake Recipe:
- 225 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 200 g golden caster or granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 4 medium eggs
- 200 g ground almonds/course almond meal
- 50 g plain/all-purpose gluten free flour (I like Udi's). You can use regular flour if you're not worried about gluten.
- 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
- 2 heaped tbsp cherry jam
- 200 g (1 cup) fresh cherries, stoned and sliced in half
- 3 tbsp flaked almonds
- 2 tbsp amaretto*
- 2 tbsp confectioners's sugar
- Preheat the oven to 170c
- Cut the butter into chunks and place in a large bowl with the sugar. Whisk with an electric whisk (or in a stand mixer) until fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
- Add in the vanilla extract and almond extract, then whisk again whilst adding in the eggs, one at a time.
- Fold in the ground almonds, flour and baking powder. Spoon into a 23cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Level the mixture with the back of a spoon.
- Spoon the jam on top in little dollops, then swirl the jam in slightly with a blunt knife. Arrange the cherries on top in a single layer (I like a messy thrown-on look, but you can arrange neatly if you like). Push in very slightly, then sprinkle the almonds on top.
- Place in the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes - until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Whisk together the amaretto and confectioners' sugar to make the glaze. Put to one side (see note below if you'd prefer a non-alcohol version).
- Take out of the oven and brush the glaze on top whilst the cake is still warm. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 mins, before removing and placing on a rack to cool further.
- You can serve this cake warm (tastes great with ice cream) or room temperature.
*You can replace the glaze with 2 tbsp sieved jam mixed with one tbsp water - heat for a few seconds in a pan or microwave to loosen it up
Any leftover cake can be placed in an airtight box and stored at room temperature. It should keep for 2 days like this - although the top may get a little more sticky.
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