Sinking cherries

I roll the cherries in flour and then add to mixture.

Your cake sounds delicious

Recipe please ecci53

I read somewhere that you coat the cherries in flour as suggested by Cherry tree.

Or get a more supportive bra. (Sorry, couldn't resist that).

Thanks for that, Little Annie, just googling support bras.

Recipe is plain flour, sugar, baking powder (can't remember exact amounts and too lazy to get up and look in notebook just now). Mix that up then mix in cherries, so they are coated in flour etc. Add the wet ingredients (2 eggs, half a bottle of almond essence, about 7 fluid ounces soya milk). Mix all together, put into loaf tin lined with baking paper, takes about 75 minutes.
The first attempt, last week, I used 10 fl oz soya milk but it seemed too wet at the time, but even with less this week still got sinking.

You could try rinsing the syrup off the cherries, dry them on kitchen paper and then put them into the dry mixture.

This is what Mary Berry says -

Half a bottle of almond essence?! Seems a lot.

Try adding ground almonds? Might give the mixture a bit more body to support the cherries. Sounds very batter-ish at the moment.

Oops. Mary Berry said that. Sorry.

My go-to recipe for cherry cake is Delia Smith's one from her Book of Cakes. It uses ground almonds as well as flour and I always start by rinsing the cherries in boiling water and drying them on kitchen paper before rolling them in some of the ground almonds before adding them to the mix. Half a bottle of almond essence?
Using Delia's recipe I have never had the cherries sink.

We like a lot of almondy flavour (favourite food and drink is marzipan and amaretto - don't have it very often, though). It is a very small bottle.
I can't use ground almonds due to the high fat content. I will try rinsing and drying the cherries next time.
Thanks for all the advice.

Agree with Cherrytree59, roll cherries in flour - works for me.

I've not made a cherry cake for ages, but the accepted wisdom then was that you should halve and wash the cherries and dry them, then roll them in flour before adding them. That seemed to work.

Is there a particular reason you follow a low fat diet ecci53? I would not have thought ground almonds to be high in fat.

As has been said, roll them in flour. You could have googled the answer before making the second cake.

You don't need to rinse and dry cherries either. Just roll in flour.

The fat in almonds is healthy monounsaturated fat so unless you’ve been told absolutely no type of fat, you should be safe to use ground almonds. Having recently been told that I have low grade type two diabetes, the dietary recommendations are to reduce carbohydrates and increase healthy fats. This is apparently the recommended healthy diet for everyone, along with plenty of fruits and veg.

I would not myself follow Mary B's method of quartering the cherries as I like the crunch you get from a half or better still a whole cherry. It needs patience but as long as you wash the syrup off, dry well, then dust this should stop the sinking.It pays to pick out the smallest cherries if using them whole as the smaller ones seem to space out rather than cluster together.

A layer of sunken cherries sounds perfectly delicious to me. I would call it cherry layer surprise cake or surprise layer cherry cake.
Good luck with the next one.

make your cake as normal omitting the cherries place three quarters of the cake mixture in the tin , wash and dry the cherries put them on top of the cake mixture cover with the remainder of the mix, works for me

Talking about almond essence, I made Mary Berry's ice cream (so easy, no machine) but accidentally put in almond essence instead of vanilla essence. DG said "this ice cream is lovely, it tastes of bakewell tart." It has been the chosen flavour ever since.

For anyone trying to heat a healthy diet, have a look at Diabeties UK web site, even if you are not diabetic, there is a section with loads of lovely recipes, with all food contents simply listed and printer friendly!

I had convinced myself I was diabetic so while I was waiting for my blood results, I decided to change my eating habit in anticipation. I printed off about 40 different meals and have been enjoying the results - lost over a stone in weight, blood pressure lower and spending much less on food shopping!

I am not diabetic, not even close, but still use these recipes as I have discovered a love of sweet potatoes - even using them to make cakes now!

The downside with all this cooking ( previously I had drifted into a very unhealthy diet consisting of snack foods) is the amount of washing up after all this cooking!

However, if I am not diabetic, then I need to find another reason for the repeated gum infections which have resulted in me having three teeth out in less than a year!

I'm with Lupin. In fact even better would be cutting it horizontally and having the cherry laden layer to yourself.

Also agree with Lupin. My DM used to say the ingredients are good so we're eating it anyway! And we used to argue over the the fallen squidgy bit in the middle of a sponge cake. Yum!