OLIVE OIL CHERRY SNACK CAKE, p. 63
Once again, I made a half recipe in an 8x8” pan. This comes together quickly, and is a tender cake, thanks to the olive oil, yogurt (I subbed plain kefir), and almond meal. I did not use an electric mixer, just a whisk, but the instructions don’t call for any long beating. I also had no lemons hanging around, so instead of using lemon zest, I added a dash of almond extract along with the vanilla. I also didn’t follow the glaze recipe, which has you purée and strain some cherries to get a little juice. Instead I whisked a spoonful of tart cherry jam and enough milk to thin it into the confectioners sugar.
My only issue was that the recipe makes a really paltry amount of batter — barely enough to cover the bottom of the pan — so though it rose just fine, it ended up looking kind of runty, at only about 1/2” thick. It seemed I could have made the full recipe’s amount of batter for the half-size pan. On the other hand, a thicker cake might not have as favorable cake-to-cherry ratio given that the cherries are only placed on top of the batter.
Regardless, it’s a delicious cake. The batter itself has a quite modest amount of sugar, so the cherries and glaze add most of the sweetness.
I wouldn’t make the full recipe unless you have a bunch of folks to eat it, because it’s not a long-keeper.