Cherries are one of my favorite fruits. Like all summer fruits. So whenever I find them in the market, I grab a very generous quantity. While I could easily eat them all, this time I used them to make a very simple cherry cake. No need to use a lot of sugar here, as the cherries will release their natural sweetness at each bite. I also made this completely dairy-free as I use vegetable oil instead of butter and almond milk, but you can substitute it with regular milk or plain yogurt (plant-based works well).
For this cake I used a 20cm round cake tin.

Cherry Cake
Ingredients
Instructions
-
Wash and pit the cherries with a knife (if you have a cherry pitter that's even better and quicker!). Then preheat the oven at 180C (fan). Grease your cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
-
Place the sugar, lemon zest, and eggs in a large bowl. Mix them together using an electric whisk. Add the oil, vanilla bean paste and almond milk, and continue to whisk. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, mix on low speed until just combined. Gently stir in the cherries (save a few for later) with a spatula.
-
Transfer the batter into the cake pan. Smooth the surface with a spatula and arrange the saved cherries on top, without pressing them into the batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake is cook through (always check by inserting a wooden toothpick in the cake: if it comes out clean and dry, the cake is ready). Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the cake pan and setting it on a wire rack to cool down completely. Dust lightly with icing sugar to decorate.