Amarena Cherry Cake
Today, I will be putting an Italian twist on a classic German cake, I will be making an Amarena cherry cake. This cake was originally baked by Giuseppe, an Italian baker and winner of season 12 of The Great British Baking Show.
This cake is based on a classic German celebration cake, Gugelhupf, which is traditionally served at weddings and other celebrations.
What makes this cake unique is the fact that it is leavened with yeast as opposed to baking powder or baking soda, making it somewhat of a cross between bread and cake. Gugelhupf also typically contains raisins and nuts and is baked in a special pan similar to a Bundt-cake pan.
Giuseppe’s cake, baked during an episode all about classic German desserts, puts an Italian twist on it with some rum-soaked cherries, and almonds, is filled with vanilla custard, and topped with an almond glaze.
I’ve never made a cake like this before, but I’m hoping it comes out good!
Some of the main components of this cake are dried morello cherries and amarena cherries. I’ll also be garnishing the cake with some fresh cherries for freshness and so you know what’s going on inside the cake.
Morello cherries are a type of dried sour cherry, they’ll add tartness and a bit of chewiness, and amarena cherries are sweet cherries soaked in a dark, rich syrup to make them extra soft and flavorful, they’re delicious as a cocktail garnish.
If you can’t find either of these then Morello cherries can be substituted for normally dried cherries or even dried cranberries, and the Morello cherries can be swapped for Luxardo cherries, available at most liquor stores.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s get to it!
Amarena Cherry Cake
Servings: 12-16
For the Cake:
150g of dried Morello cherries (sour dried cherries)
200ml of white rum
420g of bread flour, plus more if needed
12g of active dried yeast
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon of salt
150ml of milk
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
70g of sugar
190g of soft unsalted butter
180g of amarena cherries in syrup, plus more to decorate
1 tablespoon of AP flour, plus more for dusting
50g of flaked almonds
For the Custard Filling:
75g of sugar
2 egg yolks
60g of cornstarch
pinch of salt
3 tsp of vanilla paste
400ml of milk
200ml of cream
1 tbsp of kirsch (or any cherry-flavored liquor)
50g of unsalted butter
For the Cherry-Honey syrup:
120g of unsalted butter
80g of honey
For the Almond Glaze:
130g of powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp of milk
1/4 teaspoon of almond extract
Note: for a non-alcoholic version, you can swap the rum in the cake for white grape juice and omit the kirsch in the custard.
To start, soak the dried Morello cherries in the rum for 6 hours, minimum (overnight would be best), doing this will infuse the cherries with the flavor of the rum and rehydrate them a bit to give extra moisture to the finished cake.
Rum-raisin is already a classic British flavor pairing used for cakes, ice cream, and quick bread, so it makes sense that these rum cherries are here.
Drain the soaked cherries and reserved the rum for the syrup.
You can see how the cherries got nice and plump and almost doubled in size, while the rum took on the dark color and sweet-tart flavor of the cherries.
Next up, make the dough for the cake. The process is basically the same as a classic brioche dough, but will have the cherries folded in later.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a hook attachment, dump in the bread flour, yeast, and salt. Turn the mixer on low, mixing the dry ingredients together, then added the warm milk, eggs, and egg yolks, then turned up the speed to medium and mix until smooth.
Next, add the butter and sugar in batches, starting with a third of the butter, then half of the sugar, and so on until all of the butter and sugar is added and incorporated to form a smooth dough.
Continue to knead the dough on medium speed, adding more bread flour a little bit at a time until the dough is only slightly sticky and begins to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl.
Pat the drained morello cherries dry with a towel then place them into a bowl with the amarena cherries and 1 tablespoon of flour. Doing this will keep the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake as it bakes.
Next, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and fold in the cherries by hand until the cherries were evenly distributed.
The best way to do this is to stretch out the dough with floured hands and fold that on top of the cherries, then continuing to knead and fold until you could see cherries in all parts of the dough.
The dough should be rather sticky, but that’s nothing that a few dustings of flour can’t fix.
Place the dough into a large, buttered bowl, cover with a damp cloth, then leave the dough to proof for 40 minutes.
Due to the fat content in the dough from the butter and eggs, the dough isn’t going to rise a lot like standard bread dough, but don’t worry about that. You’ll know it’s ready when you can stick a finger into the dough and it’ll leave a divot.
After the dough has been proofed, punch it down to remove any excess air, then shape it into a ball and dump it onto a lightly floured work surface.
Use your hands to create and hole in the center and gently stretch it into a large donut shape that’s wide enough to fit in a Bundt cake pan. If some of the cherries are poking out of the dough, then you can easily stretch the dough out a bit to cover them.
Sprinkle the almonds to line the bottom of a greased Bundt pan then set the dough on top. Those almonds at the bottom will bake and become slightly toasted, so when we invert the baked cake, we will get crunchy bits at the top.
Cover the dough and leave it to proof for an additional 40 minutes. This is also a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
While the dough proofs some more, we can make the custard filling.
Start by whisking the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, vanilla paste, and salt together in a large heatproof bowl, then add 100ml of the milk and whisk to combine. Doing this will dissolve the cornstarch into a slurry and help you achieve a smooth custard.
Then, in a medium pot, heat the remaining 300ml of milk and the cream until barely simmering.
Once the milk and cream were simmering, slowly pour about half of it into the egg mixture, whisking to combine, then pour that back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the custard has thickened by a lot.
Once thickened, remove from the heat and add the kirsch.
Slowly whisk in the butter, a little bit at a time so the butter can emulsify with the custard until the butter is melted and smooth. Strain, then cover directly with plastic wrap and chill until completely cold.
While the custard is cooling, make the cherry-honey syrup.
It’s very easy to do, just heat the honey and butter together in a small saucepan until the butter is fully melted, then add the reserved rum from soaking the cherries and swirl to combine. Set aside.
Once the dough had proofed a second time, bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out dry.
As soon as the cake is baked, prick it several times with a long skewer, then brush it with some of the honey syrup. Invert the cake onto a wire rack over a sheet pan, then brush with more syrup until completely coated.
Leave to cool completely.
Once the cake is almost cooled, make the almond glaze.
In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, almond extract, and enough milk to turn the glaze into a thick drizzling consistency.
Once the cake is completely cooled, it’s time to decorate! Start by drizzling the almond glaze onto the cake.
Beat the chilled custard a bit to loosen, then load some of it into a piping bag with a star tip. Pipe little rosettes on top of the cake, then garnish with more amarena cherries.
(You could also garnish it with some fresh cherries if they’re in season, but I had some raspberries so I chose that instead.)
Slice up the cake and serve with more of the custard on the side.
I have to say, I was quite impressed with the cakey crumb texture of the cake itself, but the yeast made it incredibly light and airy.
The flavor of the cherries was spot on, the almonds on top gave a nice crunch, that rum syrup was a nice touch, the custard helped to balance out the sharp rum flavor, and it was a delicious bite that I would make again.
