Cherry-Vanilla Tea Cake with Vanilla Sugar : Free and Easy Bake-Along #17

Thank you for all the Chinese New Year wishes!! I'm back from the week long Chinese New Year holidays and had a nice time travelling to my in-laws' and my dad's home. Well, CNY is not over yet, it will last for a total of 15 days and looking forward to another party this weekend!

Cherry-Vanilla Tea Cake with Vanilla Sugar, sounds really nice and fragrant! We made this for our Bake-Along, together with Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids.

The cake is a soft tender butter cake, lightly spiced with nutmeg. After the cake is baked, the top is sprinkled with vanilla sugar, a mixture of vanilla seeds with some sugar and confectioners' sugar while still hot, about 10 minutes after baking, then left to cool so that some of the sugar melts on the top.

This cake is perfect to go with tea! It's texture is light, tender, soft and moist. At first I was afraid that it might be sweet, but since I did reduced the sugar in the cake itself, so this is not a too sweet cake, really nice with the fragrant vanilla sugar.

Though some of the cherries stays throughout the cake, most of it settled at the bottom. But then, it does not affect the yumminess taste of the cake one bit!!

Overall review : A nice cake to have with a cup of tea for afternoon tea-break. It is light, soft, moist and tender. Another keeper recipe from Bon Appetit Desserts Cookbook.

Let's go over to Lena's and Zoe's and also to our friends in the linky below. For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking based on a theme "Red Velvet Cupcakes" which we will post on 13/02, in time for Valentine! Everyone's welcome! Just bake any Red Velvet Cupcakes and join us as we celebrate Valentine's Day! See you!

Cherry-Vanilla Tea Cake with Vanilla Sugar
(adapted from "Bon Appetit Desserts" by Barbara Fairchild)

A springform pan is ideal for this cake. The powdered sugar topping can be sifted over the hot cake while it's still in the pan - allowing some of the sugar to melt ever so slightly - then the sides can be slipped off without disturbing the topping. Tossing the cherries with the reserved flour mixture before they're added to the batter prevents them from sinking to the bottom

10 servings

1-1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar (I use 3/4 cup)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream (I use homemade yoghurt)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel (I use orange zest)
1 cup canned pitted sweet cherries, halved, drained
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter and flour 10-inch-diameter springform pan with 2-3/4-inch-high sides. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla extract. Transfer 2 tablespoons dry ingredients to small bowl. At low speed, beat half the remaining dry ingredients into butter mixture, then mix in sour cream and lemon peel. Beat in remaining half of dry ingredients. Mix cherries into reserved 2 tablespoons dry ingredients; fold cherries into batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pan, smooth top. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, using small sharp knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into small bowl. Mix in remaining 1 tablespoon sugar, rubbing with fingertips to distribute seeds. Add powdered sugar and rub again.

Sift vanilla sugar over hot cake and cool. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake, remove pan sides.

Do Ahead : Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; let stand at room temperature.