Schmand-Kirsch-Kuchen (sour cream cherry cake)
A quick shortcrust base holding well-drained cherries under a plain schmand and egg custard, no streusel and no pastry cream, just the tang of the sour cream against the fruit. This is the cake to make when Kirsch-Streusel-Kuchen feels like too much cake for the occasion.
Christoph's plainer sour cream cherry cake, no streusel or pastry cream, just cherries against a tangy custard.
Ingredients
Written for a 24 cm round tin
Units
Temperature
Servings
Base
- 200 g flour rounded
- 50 g sugar rounded
- 6 g baking powder rounded
- 1 g fine salt rounded
- 100 g cold butter, cubed rounded
- 1 egg rounded
Cherries and custard
- 500 g sour cherries, pitted, well drained if jarred rounded
- 400 g sour cream rounded
- 3 eggs rounded
- 70 g sugar rounded
- 20 g cornstarch rounded
- 8 g vanilla sugar rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Rub the cold butter into the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until it looks like coarse crumbs, then work in the egg just until a dough forms. Press into the base of a 24 cm springform, about 2 cm up the sides.
- Drain the cherries thoroughly in a sieve, pressing gently, then scatter them evenly over the base.
- Whisk the sour cream, eggs, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla sugar together until smooth, then pour evenly over the cherries.
- Bake at 180°C for 35 to 40 minutes, until the custard is set at the edges and still wobbles gently as one piece in the centre.
- Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then chill at least 1 hour before releasing and slicing.
Notes
- Draining the cherries properly matters more here than in a streusel version. With no streusel to soak up excess liquid, an under-drained cherry layer leaves the custard too wet to set.
- This is a quicker, plainer cake than the streusel and pastry cream versions elsewhere in the book. It suits an ordinary weekday coffee rather than a occasion that calls for something more elaborate.
- The custard should still wobble when it comes out. Baked until completely firm, it will have overbaked by the time it cools, and the texture turns rubbery rather than soft.
- It keeps for 3 days in the fridge, covered.
Ingredient substitutions
- Sour cherries can be sweet cherries, pitted, with the sugar reduced slightly to keep the balance.
- Sour cream can be a mix of sour cream and quark for a firmer set, or crème fraîche for a milder tang.
- Frozen sour cherries work if thawed and well drained.
- A dusting of icing sugar over the cooled cake is the only decoration this cake needs.
From Christoph Mayer