Eggless Lemon and Cherry Cake

Cherries are in full swing this summer and such juicy and pretty ones! We bought a big box of fresh cherries and I had a gala time eating them. And though my favourite way of eating fruits is eating them as it is, I do love an occasional recipe with these seasonal fruits.

Off all the cherry recipes, though this Eggless Cherry and Lemon cake is not as easy as a cherry cobbler, but it isn’t far behind on ease levels and is ready in about an hour (barring pitting the cherries). You can easily store it in a refrigerator for 2-3 days. The only long and tedious part of the process is pitting cherries which takes about 10-15 minutes (I usually do it while cooking my meals or watching some documentary on Netflix, to save some time 😊).

Now we all know chocolate and cherry is a classic combination and I am really fond of a dense Chocolate Cherry Mud Cake, however this Lemon and Cherry cake is a classic, vibrant and light dish and so soothing on your palate that you will love it. The sweetness and light tartness of the cherries and the zingy- ness of the lemon zest grants an amazing flavor to this loaf.

Without further ado, here is a quick and easy recipe of this Eggless Cherry and Lemon Cake loaf.

VARIATIONS:

1. Cherries: You can use fresh or canned cherries for this. If you are using canned cherries, remember to can them out of the refrigerator and get them to room temperature before use.
2. Oil/Butter: You can use oil or unsalted butter for the recipe. I have used a simple Sunflower oil for this recipe.
3. Sugar – I have used brown sugar for the batter and used icing sugar for sprinkling on top. You can use regular white sugar in the loaf as well but I like to avoid using refined sugar in my recipes, so I haven’t used it.
4. Milk Powder – I usually use unsweetened dried milk powder in my cake batter to give it a nice richness and reduce the need to add a lot of oil/butter. If you don’t have that handy, then you can replace this with ¼ cup milk and ¾ cup sugar (instead of the ¼ cup milk powder and 1 cup curd used in this recipe).

PREPARATION TIME: 10-12 minutes
COOKING TIME: 50 minutes
SERVINGS: 7-8
DIFFICULTY SCALE: Medium

INGREDIENTS:

1. All-purpose flour – 1.5 cup
2. Cherries (pitted) – 1 cup
3. Milk powder – ¼ cup
4. Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
5. Baking soda – ½ teaspoon
6. Vegetable oil – ½ cup
7. Curd – 1 cup
8. Sugar – ¾ cup
9. Lemon juice – 1 lemon
10. Lemon zest – ½ teaspoon
11. Vanilla Essence – ½ teaspoon
12. Salt – a pinch

UTENSILS/EQUIPMENT:

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1. Whisk
2. Mixing Bowl
3. Cake Loaf Tin
4. OTG
5. Cherry Pitter

RECIPE:

1. If you are using fresh cherries, then wash them thoroughly and strain the excess water out. Then use a pitter to remove the pit of the cherry. If you don’t have one, just use a knife to remove the pit.

2. Roughly chop the cherries and keep them aside.
3. Add sugar to a mixer grinder and make a fine powder. Now add vegetable oil, curd and vanilla essence and mix everything well.
4. Set the OTG/oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
5. Now take a big mixing bowl and add all-purpose flour, milk powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
6. Mix everything well.
7. Blend in the wet ingredients now and mix everything with light hands.
8. Add in about ¾ cup of cherries into the mixture along with lemon juice and zest.

9. Line a cake loaf tin with baking paper and add the batter to it. Tap to remove any air bubbles.
10. Now sprinkle the leftover cherries on top and a little brown sugar. The sugar will caramelize and give a lovely crusty exterior.

11. Place it in the OTG at 180 degrees Celsius for the first 40 minutes on both the grills. For the last 10 minutes, switch off the top heating rod.
12. Cool the cake loaf completely for 15-20 minutes before slicing it off.

Enjoy this lovely summer Eggless Cherry and Lemon Cake Loaf with your evening tea!