The basic premise of adapting this recipe is to leave out the lemon flavouring and syrup topping and add up to 200g of dried fruit, chopped nuts and/or chopped chocolate, as well as any other flavouring such as spices. Either the polenta or ground nuts can be replaced by more flour to vary the flavour and texture, and 25g of flour could be replaced by cocoa to make a chocolate flavoured batter.For this cake, I kept the ground almonds and added a few drops of almond extract to emphasise the flavour. I added 100g chopped plain chocolate and 75g dried cherries to the batter, and sprinkled flaked almonds over the surface before baking.
Ground nuts keep the texture of this cake moist, and the combination of chocolate, cherries and almonds is so classic, I'm sure it needs no further endorsement from me!
Lucky him, to take that lovely cake home! And lucky you, to be able to bake and not end up eating it all.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Foodycat - I have to stay on the lookout for small recipes, or cook my usual cakes in two loaf tins now that CT isn't here - he used to eat at least half of what I baked.
ReplyDeleteChocolate, cherry and almond is a great combination and this cake looks great, a really nice texture!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have a go-to recipe that you can adapt to whatever flavours or add-ins you fancy - it looks like this one always works well for you so I might have to give it a try!
What a versatile recipe this is. A lovely variation Suelle, and I love any cherry and almond combo.
ReplyDeleteCherry, chocolate and almond sounds like a lovely combination. I'd be completely stuck without my CT as he is the principle consumer of my baking efforts.
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