Cherry Cake and our very own Tricky Dick!

Cherry Cake

Local cherries are at the farmer's market! I used Red Jacket Orchard's red cherries for this simple, buttery, fresh tasting Cherry Cake. If you check out their site, find recipes from the pull down menu. There are some great looking recipes as well as a couple of links to my own. This is a perfect ending to a summer lunch or dinner. Serve it plain or dress it up with some ice cream or a dollop of freshly whipped cream (don't sweeten your whipped cream, or sweeten it ever so slightly with confectioner's (10X) sugar.

Cherry Cake

Adapted from The Provence Cookbook by Patricia Wells

(you can buy this book on Amazon - follow the link - for about $6.00)

Equipment: a 9-inch springform cake pan; whisk attachment for electric mixer

Ingredients:

2 large eggs, room temperature

2/3 c. or 5 oz. sugar

4 Tbsp.or 2 oz. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

¼ c. extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 c. whole milk

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ c. or 7.1 oz. all purpose flour (unbleached is best)

1 tsp. baking powder

Generous pinch of kosher salt

Grated zest of 1 lemon

grated zest of 1 orange

1 pound fresh cherries, rinsed, stemmed and pitted

Additional butter and flour for pan preparation

Powdered (10X) sugar for dusting

Procedure:

Preheat over to 425º F. Generously butter and flour the springform pan. Tap out excess flour. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Toss grated zests into the mixture and whisk to incorporate. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and lemon-colored, about 2 minutes.

Add melted butter, olive oil, milk and vanilla and mix just to blend.

Remove bowl from electric mixer and add flour mixture, all at once. Mix gently with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow flour to absorb liquids.

Stir about ¾ of the stemmed and pitted cherries into the batter and spoon into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top if needed.

Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle with the remaining cherries,

LOWER the oven temperature to 350º F. and bake approximated 45 to 50 minutes more, until cake is golden and feels firm.

Cool on rack and after 10 minutes, if needed, run a sharp knife around the edges and remove side of springform pan to cool cake.

When cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

If you're wondering about Dick Cheney,

Here's the cherry on top:

The NY Times just reported:

Cheney Is Linked to C.I.A. Concealment of Terror Program.

s'all.

peace, justice and love,

jane