Cherry cake pix and recipe

I was convinced I had posted this cake recipe earlier, but I guess I never did. I can't find it anywhere on the blog. This has become my standard cake, with various additions — prunes, raisins, coconut, almonds — to make it different each time.

Cake with cherries — Gâteau aux cerises

Le Meilleur Cake

150 g de beurre
100 g de sucre
1 c. à café d’extrait de vanille
3 oeufs
2 c. à soupe de crème fraîche
125 g de farine
1 pincée de sel
1 c. à café de levure alsacienne

Vous pouvez ajouter :
125 g de pruneaux denoyautés
ou de raisins secs
ou d’un autre fruit frais ou sec
ou de noix de coco
ou 1 c. à café d’extrait d’amandes

Faire fondre le beurre. Le laisser refroidir.

Incorporer le sucre, l’extrait de vanille, et une pincée de sel. Ajouter les oeufs entiers puis la levure et la farine.

Finir par les fruits ou parfums. Mélanger bien.

Chemiser un moule à cake, verser y la préparation et enfourner dans un four à 180°C pour trois quarts d’heure.

The recipe in English is below. For the cherry cake, I ended up putting in a lot more than 4 oz. of fresh, pitted cherries. And instead of vanilla, I put in kirsch as a flavoring ingredient, to intensify the cherry taste. You could use rum or other extracts or alcohols, depending on what kind of cake you're making. I especially like this cake made with prunes (dried plums) and armagnac.

Cake on a base of cherries!

You'll notice that the cherries mostly sank to the bottom when I poured the batter into the loaf pan. Maybe it was because I put in nearly twice what the recipe calls for. It didn't matter to us. I've read that if you toss the fruit with a little bit of flour before adding it to the cake batter, the pieces won't tend to sink to the bottom as much. I didn't do that. Maybe next time.

How about a nice cherry compote — cherries stewed
in kirsch and sugar — to go with the cake?

The Best Cake

12 Tbsp. butter (1½ sticks, or a little less)
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or other)
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. cream
1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. baking powder

Optional additions: 4 oz. of pitted prunes, raisins,
peaches, blueberries, coconut, almonds, etc.

Soften or even melt the butter and let it cool before using it.

Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla (or other flavoring) and mix well. Beat in the eggs one by one, and then blend in the flour and baking powder.

Finally, add the fruit or other optional ingredients and mix well.

Pour the batter into a buttered + floured loaf pan. Bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until done.