Author Notes
Searching for a non-pie use for a smallish amount of sour cherries, I landed on making a quick cake with a mix of grain flours. I always use some oat flour in my cake-stands-alone type cakes (as in, not layers and not iced) as it seems to give them some extra lift and life. You could go gluten-free on this one, just try a different flour instead of wheat for that last 1/3--you want a total of 1 and 1/3 cups flour. If you aren't gluten free, then I'd say keep the wheat flour for the structure it will give the cake. A very moist endeavor, well-balanced between the tart cherries and their juice. —Raquelita
Ingredients
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40 grams
oat flour (or same weight of oats, ground) / 1/3 cup
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80 grams
buckwheat flour (2/3 cup)
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40 grams
all purpose flour (1/3 cup)
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3 cups
unpitted cherries (or whatever you have)
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1/2 cup
juice from pitting the cherries
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Splash
whole milk or other liquid, as needed
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1.75 teaspoons
baking powder
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1
egg (large or jumbo chicken egg, or a duck egg)
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3 tablespoons
butter, at room temperature
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150 grams
sugar
Directions
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Combine the flours and baking soda in a bowl.
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Prep the cherries and juice: Pit the cherries (you can use your fingers to squeeze out the pits of sour cherries); place pitted cherries in a strainer over a bowl or liquid measuring cup to catch their drips. Gently press the cherries to release more liquid--you don't want them so juicy that they release tons of juice into the cake and make it soggy. Strain the pits over the bowl as well. If you don't get 1/2 a cup of juice, then add milk, buttermilk, apple juice or water to complete that amount. If you're not using an extra large, jumbo or duck egg, use an extra tablespoon of liquid.
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Add egg to butter and sugar, beat well for 30 seconds.
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Add the cherry juice/liquid to the butter mixture and beat well. The mixture may separate into globs and liquid, that's okay.
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Gently stir in the flour mixture. Since there is less wheat flour in this cake, it's okay to stir a lot to rid it of lumps and flour streaks. The batter is quite thick.
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Stir in the cherries so they are evenly distributed.
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Scrape into a greased and flour-dusted round cake baking pan of 8 or 9 inches in diameter and spread to distribute it evenly in the pan.
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Bake at 375F for 35-45 minutes. After 30 minutes of baking, you can sprinkle a mixture of 1-2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg on top of the cooking cake. This makes a great crunchy top later.
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Let cool in the pan, then loosen the cake with a thin offset spatula and flip onto a plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream or pudding.
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