When Sarah calls you up and asks if you want to bake something, the correct answer is always yes. Yes! You’ll shout into the phone, not caring what day of the week it is or what you might have planned to do that afternoon. New plan: bake with Sarah.
So that’s where I found myself one bright afternoon, sitting with Sarah in my kitchen nook, the two of us staring at a giant bowl of cherries on the countertop and leafing through a mound of cookbooks for inspiration. Pound cake! We decided. What does Ina have to say about it? We wondered.
Ina had a few things to say about her pound cake (honey, pure cake flour, no cherries, etc.), but between Sarah and my meddling the finished recipe was a far cry from the original – laced with almond extract, spelt flour, a healthy amount of brown sugar, and studded throughout with fresh cherry jewels.
We watched season 5 of the Great British Bake Off while our own cake baked, which is something I recommend doing, regardless of whether or not you make this recipe. (A Mel/Sue sandwich is always a good idea, y’know?) Anyway, despite all of the meddling, and the fact that we were distracted by television and missed our baking timers, the finished product – our brown sugar cherry pound cake – turned out to be quite simple and fresh, a perfectly dense and buttery cake, topped with a bright and cheerful glaze in the loveliest (slash trendiest) of summer hues.
Bottom line is it’s scrummy. Will you try it? On your mark, get set, BAKE!
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