Cherry and Almond Cake

I've made this cake before and remember the smell above everything else. At the time I hadn't read the last line of the instructions "leave to cool in the tin" meaning that with 1 hour until I had to leave the house I ended up sitting on the bus with it wrapped in foil and a tea towel getting odd but envious looks.

The recipe is from Australian Womens Weekly Cooking Class Cakes. I'm a big fan of the WW series, the cakes are great everyday ones with notes on how to make special variations, store and serve them. The step by step pictures make it really easy to follow and there's guidance about lining a cake tin etc... The only significant drawback is that they insist on putting the calories and fat per slice on the bottom of each recipe. That's just unneccessary, especially as 'serves 12' is unlikely to stretch that far in my house!

I'd have to say that out of all my books, this is the one I use the most.

The recipe I used can be found here, with a few small variations. The main one is that the book's recipe is for a slightly smaller cake and that there's no need to add flour with each egg. It might curdle, but the mix'll sort itself out in the oven. Don't be put off by the awful picture on the website, look at mine instead lol

One thing I always do with glace cherries is washing them and drying them with a paper towel. Without the syrup they don't sink much and make the cake less soggy.

P.S. It's worth getting different coloured glace cherries to make it look more interesting, and saving some almonds to sprinkle on the top.