Dark Cherry and Earl Grey Cake

My Mom loved baked goods. Usually cookies, sometimes cakes without cream or chocolate decoration. Once a year, special occasion, she baked strawberry cream cake for my birthday, chocolate cake for my brother. Other time, just regular bake like today's.

This is dark cherry and earl grey cake. When I was a kid, I didn't like cakes tasted liqueur even though a little bit flavor.  Now it is ok, and actually not tasted alcohol, just a weak fragrance.

Today I miss this buttery cake. While I was baking, I was shocked of huge amount of butter in the recipe. Recently it is popular to bake without butter because healthy or lack of butter in the supermarket in Japan. Many baker try to use vegetable oil. Those are not bad but sometimes I want to eat butter flavor cake.

By the way, lack of butter is serious problem recent years. We can still buy but it costs very high.
About 400 Japanese yen per 200g. Hope to be cheaper!


**dark cherry and earl grey cake recipe**
(10*10 square pan)

<preparation>
cherry
Put 1 can of dark cherry and 1tbs of cointeau into a saucepan, and simmer it. Cool them down.

crumble
1/2 cup flour
2 tbs butter
2 tbs sugar
vanilla extract, coinyrear.

Put flour and sugar  in a small bowl.
Cut into small cube of butter, mix with flour. Add vanilla extract.
Sit them in freezer.

meringue
3 egg white
1/5 cup sugar

Beat an egg white and sugar until stiff peak.


<sponge>
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1tbs earl grey
vanilla extract,  cointreau (favorite liqueur)

Whisk room temperature butter and sugar until color changed to close to white.
Put egg yolk one by one.
Add vanilla extract and cointreau.
Mix them and 1/6 of meringue gently, and add flour and baking powder.
And then, mix all leftover of meringue and flour.
Put dough into a square pan and bake at 170° preheated oven.
15 minutes later, take out it from the oven, put cherry and crumble on top.
Bake at 160° oven for 25-30minutes.