Accidental Cherry Chocolate Almond Cake
I absolutely love accidental recipes. The sort that come about, for example, when you want to impress your boyfriend’s mom with your reliable Cranberry Chocolate Bread but realize that plump August cherries are more appropriate for the season than frozen cranberries. And that as a result, almonds would be more complementary than the originally-called-for walnuts.
And when, for a change, you actually have buttermilk in the house, so you don’t have to create that vinegar-in- milk-to-replace-buttermilk- concoction that the recipe calls for.Then, at the end of all that, when you can’t be bothered to grate orange rind, or for the life of you find your loaf pan, the result is a gooey, chocolate-y concotion like this:
{RECIPE} CHERRY CHOCOLATE ALMOND CAKE
{MAKES} one gooey 8 x8″ cake
{INGREDIENTS}
2C all-purpose flour
½ C sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ C buttermilk
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 free-range egg
1 tsp vanilla
1C dark chocolate chips (a few more if you have a tendency to sneak eat your chocolate chips while baking)
½ C toasted, sliced almonds (just toss for 5 minutes in a frying pan over medium on the stove-top until lightly toasted)
2 C fresh cherries, pitted
{DIRECTIONS}
one. Don apron. Wash cherries and grimly de-stem each one. Cut a slit into each cherry (from stem to bottom) and yank out the pit. You will make a mess.
two. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously oil a 8 x 8-inch baking pan.
three. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in medium bowl. Stir in almonds and chocolate chips.
four.In second bowl, vigorously whisk together the buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla.
five.Using a rubber spatula, fold the flour/chocolate chip/almond mixture into the wet ingredients until moistened.
six. Gently fold in cherries.
seven. Using spatula, spread batter into the pan and smooth out the top.
eight. Bake 30-35 minutes until the top is a tempting golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out without streaks of cake batter. Melted chocolate chips on the toothpick is acceptable.
nine.Cool for 15 minutes, remove from pan and cut into squares to serve.
