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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Cherry Bomb!

Having a blog has its perks ... like two big ol' bags of free cherries from Whole Foods to use however I see fit. The Memphis store (5022 Poplar) is hosting a Cherry Fest on Saturday, July 23rd from 1 to 3 p.m., and they're hoping to spread the word about cherry season. Cherry Fest features a cooking demo by Sri Srinivsan and lots of recipes and samples of cherry-centric foods.

The marketing department asked me to cook up some fun cherry-based dessert for my blog and share the recipe. I didn't want to do a pie because that route seemed too obvious, but honestly, I've rarely worked with fresh cherries. I don't own a cherry pitter, and I assumed pitting by hand would be a pain.

But not so. I pitted three cups worth in less than 15 minutes for this Cherry Pudding Cake:

Since I wasn't familiar with many fresh cherry recipes, I googled and stumbled upon this recipe from AllRecipes.com. It was easily veganized, and it sounded pretty yummy. It's a cakey cobbler dessert made from fresh cherries dropped into a thick vanilla cake batter. The cake cooks around the cherries, and the fruit gets all melty and awesome.

Here's a slice before my co-workers gobbled it up:

And here's the recipe, adapted from AllRecipes.com.

Cherry Pudding Cake
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2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup evaporated cane juice
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup soymilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups pitted red cherries
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish. In a bowl, stir together the flour, 1 cup of evaporated cane juice, baking powder, soymilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla to make a smooth batter; scrape batter into the prepared baking dish.

In a separate bowl, stir the cherries with the other 3/4 cup of evaporated cane juice and the almond extract; spoon the cherry mixture over the batter.


Bake in the preheated oven until the cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes.
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Don't forget to enter my Zukay Ginger-Beet Kvass giveaway here. And I'll see y'all again on Sunday night (or maybe even Monday). I'm headed to New Orleans for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conference for work.

16 comments:

  1. I am so jealous!! I adore cherries!

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  3. Hello Daddy, hello mom, I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch...cherry bomb~
    Love that song. I like anything with the word pudding in it, guess I could also make this with sour cherries, huh? YUM~!

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  4. Very pretty! I wish cherry season wasn't so short. They're one of my favorite fruits, but the time they're around is fleeting. This looks like a great way to make the most of it!

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  5. omg! yummy! the cherry bomb looks delicious!

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  6. Cherries are my favorite fruit. That cobbler looks so amazing...I'm going to make it!! And FREE cherries!?!?! You lucky gal!

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  7. I love fresh cherries, and this looks absolutely delicious!

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  8. I bought an ENORMOUS amount of cherries when they were 3 bucks for a pound, organic. 4 dollars off!
    And had a belly ache for one week because I ate SO many. But loved them!
    Recipe looks great.

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  9. That looks amazing! I love cherries.

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  10. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've ever pitted cherries by hand. Then, I don't think I've ever cooked with cherries because they are just so good fresh that it never crossed my mind :)
    This looks FANTASTIC.

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  11. You dressed those free cherries up mighty fine.

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  12. Love the new look! That cherry cake/cobbler looks fabulous!

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  13. Oh yum, that looks so delicious. I love your vegan plate too, where did you get that?

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