Cherry Spoon Cake

This Cherry Spoon Cake is without a doubt my favourite dessert of the year. Delicious, quick, fuss free and super adaptable. Glam it up with cherries or figs or keep it cheap and cheerful with any seasonal or frozen fruit and add more flavour with a pinch of cardamom, ginger or cinnamon in the batter. In fact, a handful of chocolate chunks or some citrus zest is not a bad idea either.

The NYT Cooking recipe came to me via a friend who made it for dinner one evening. We enjoyed it with strawberries and I have subsequently made it figs and mixed berries. Cherries are in season and impossible to resist so this version of the Spoon Cake is made with cherries, served with a glug or two of pouring cream.

More a pudding than a cake, according to NYT Cooking, the Spoon Cake get’s it name from the way it’s served, spooned to catch both the crusted edges and soft set centre in one scoop. The cake smells incredible as it bakes and the cake is best enjoyed the day it is made, served slightly warm. You want that contrast of chewy crusty edges and the soft, buttery, almost caramel flavoured centre. If there are some leftovers, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to slightly reheat as the cake is not at its best cold.

Depending on the sweetness of the fruit you use, I feel you could reduce the sugar by 20g or so. For me too much sugar masks flavour. I have successfully increased the recipe by 1 and half and increased the baking time by about 10 minutes. I am sure you could safely double it but do keep an eye on the baking time. It’s not a sponge cake that will collapse so don’t stress too much about opening the oven after 20 minutes of baking.

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I hope you enjoy this recipe idea for a Cherry Spoon Cake. If you’ve made it, share it with me by tagging @heinstirred on Instagram with the hashtag #heinstirred. It is always a treat to see the recipes made and enjoyed.

Cherry Spoon Cake

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Ingredients

  

• 115 g butter melted plus more for greasing
• 145 g fresh or defrosted hulled strawberries (or cherries, berries, figs, stonefruit etc)
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 120 ml milk at room temperature
• ½
 tsp salt
• 130 g flour
• 1 
 tsp baking powder
• Vanilla ice cream or pouring cream for serving

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
• Grease a 20cm baking dish with butter and set aside
• Roughly mash the strawberries (or other fruit) to release some of their juices, stir in half the brown sugar and set aside
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, remaining sugar, milk and salt, then add the flour and baking powder and continue whisking just until the batter is smooth
• Pour the batter into the baking dish and spread evenly
• Spoon the strawberries and all their juices over the top of the batter
• Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or just when a toothpick comes out clean in the centre
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 3 to 5 minutes before spooning into bowls
• Serve warm with ice cream or pouring cream