Cherry and Almond Cake

Now that my eldest girl has started school I’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of phonetics. Each Monday they are given the ‘sound of the week’ and much of the activities for the week are centred around it. Last week it was B so all I heard was bears, bats, balls and, unusually, bagels.

“We ate yummy bagels today mammy.”

“I love bagels.”

“Bagels are a tasty treat for children.”

My kids can be pretty fussy eaters, especially at breakfast time, so I over-enthusiastically headed to Tesco to buy a pack of bagels.

The next morning…

“I don’t like bagels.”

“Bagels are yucky food.”

“I don’t like to eat yucky bagels.”

Of course not, silly silly mammy. Predictably this week’s sound is ‘C’ so amongst other things, they’ve been trying crumpets.

“Crumpets are so yummy mammy.”

Nice try babe, I’ll stick to what I know you’ll eat. C is for Cake and there’s not many Cakes more Classic than a Cherry and almond Cake! Lots of chances to practice that ‘C’ sound and perfect with a Cuppa or Coffee.

Ingredients

225g self raising flour
225g butter
4 eggs (ours were medium)
250g pitted cherries or glace cherries
100g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
Sprinkle of flaked almonds (optional)
You will need a 2lb loaf tin or 8″ round cake tin, lined with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.

Crack in the eggs, add almond extract and mix well.

Fold in almonds and flour and give a quick mix until just combined.

Transfer half into the cake tin and place cherries on top before adding the rest of the batter. Sprinkle your flaked almonds on top before the kids eat the batter out of the cake pan…