A cake to brighten any day
Cherry season is here!
“Everyone else has given up bringing anything else, because there’s just no way to compete with a good Streuselkuchen”
Dear Melanie,
I have a clever little hack for pitting cherries. Do you want to know it? You take a soda bottle - we have some antique “Bendigo glass” bottles that my husband picked up at a thrift shop - and sit the cherry, stem facing up, on the mouth of it. Then you take something long and strong - a metal or plastic strayer is perfect - and push it straight through the cherry. The seed and any messy juices drop neatly into the bottle, while the cherry itself is cleanly pitted.
Cherry picking is one of our favourite early-summer activities. We like to go as early as possible in the morning, before the heat of the day. Rows of trees, gently arching over the hills filled with perfectly ripe fruit.
We take it easy, wandering slowly among the fruit-trees and picking from any that take our fancy. Cherries hang in clusters like gemstones from the trees and, if you’re lucky, you’ll find an orchard like the one we visit, that grows a number of varieties. Blood-red, fire-orange, creamy-white, and wine-dark… it’s a beautiful, sweet medley.
Some of the trees have small step-ladders resting underneath them, and it’s worth making use of these: many of the best and ripest fruits can be found up high.
It’s expected and even encouraged by the orchard owners that we help ourselves to cherries as we go along, so naturally, we oblige. By the time our fruit-baskets are full, the children have ruby-red lips, stained fingernails, and juice running all the way down their arms to their elbows.
We carry a picnic lunch with us (although nobody is particularly hungry after two hours among the fruit trees) and spread a rug under an enormous, ancient pine tree in the centre of the orchard to eat.
Cherry season is as fleeting as it is fruitful. A summer treat that only really appears in early December, and is all-but gone by the New Year, I think cherries are even sweeter for their scarcity.
I’d hoped to take the children cherry-picking again this year, but first the rains and then the sheer volume of social engagements got in our way. It’s as though all of Melbourne is packing every single thing we missed during the past two and a half years into the four months from August to December. Is this happening for you too?
And of course you know the advice about picking cherries after rain: don’t do it. Once the cherries are ripe, moisture tends to crack or split the fruit, so it’s best to go before the weather turns. (Which has been easier said than done this season. This, if you or anyone reading has been wondering, is why cherries are so incredibly expensive right now - the never-ending rain has made un-cracked cherries are rare and precious commodity).
I’ve been holding on to Jane’s recipe all year, waiting for just the right time to share it so we can really appreciate the cherry flavours in her mum’s crumb-cake (even though Jane’s original recipe makes use of tinned cherries).
She sent her letter in a handmade envelope that she had covered, front and back, with stamped cherries. The stamp looks homemade, too. I wonder if she carved it from an eraser? Red cherries hang like double Christmas-baubles all over the envelope, and a little green leaf just out jauntily at one angle or another.
Inside, she’s taped together four small sheets of paper to create a kind of concertina-letter, again, stamped all over with the lovely cherries. The recipe is type-written, as well as a bit of a story telling the history of the cake she shares.
“In my family, whenever there is any kind of family occasion, my mother will bring a Streusel Cake. Everyone else has given up bringing anything else, because there’s just no way to compete with a good Streuselkuchen. Plus my mother’s cakes are big enough to feed a small to medium sized army,” she writes.
“A typical German Streusel Cake has a bread-like and not very sweet base and is topped, of course, with heaps of delicious, crunch Streusels. In between the base and the Streusels a layer of fruit may be included, most commonly cherries.”
There’s a curious tradition here, which I know will pique your food-history interest. Jane writes that streusel cakes are also known as “funeral cakes” in the Rhineland region where she lives.
“After a burial it is traditional around here to gather for a light meal of soup and sandwiches, followed unfailingly by coffee and Streusel Cake,” Jane continues.
“Maybe this means that Streusel Cake can brighten any day. I would suggest trying it for a happier occasion, though!”
Recipe: Kirschstreuselkuchen (cherry streusel cake)
Jane notes that if you don’t want to make a Streusel cake as big as this one, a third of these ingredients should work well for a typical brownie-sized tin, or a round cake tin with a diameter of 10 to 12 inches.
YOU WILL NEED
For the dough:
450g plain wheat flour
50g sugar
220ml luke-warm milk
40g fresh yeast (or 15g dried yeast)
1 egg
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon butter
For the cherry filling:
1 jar or can of pitted cherries*
1 heaped tablespoon of starch flour
* Preferably sweetened sour cherries, but other types should work, too. In Germany a typical jar of sour cherries contains around 700g, including juice. This is enough for a thin layer of cherries. If you prefer more fruit, you can use up to two jars (or the equivalent available in your country).
* This can be replaced with any other fruit of your choice (popular varieties are apples, rhubarb or apricots). Any fresh fruit - including cherries - will probably need to be cooked before using it in this recipe
For the streusels:
250g melted butter
400g plain wheat flour
200g sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch cinnamon
50g grated or shaved almonds
HOW TO MAKE CHERRY STREUSEL CAKE
Make the dough by combining all ingredients and kneading until you get a smooth ball of dough (you can do this by hand or mixer, that’s totally up to you). Leave it to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes.
Place the cherries with any juices contained in the jar and starch flour in a pot on the stove and bring everything to the boil while stirring occasionally. Let it boil briefly, then take the pot off the stove and set it aside to cool (the cherries do not need to be cold before you continue, just cooled down a little).
For the Streusels, place all ingredients in a bowl and combine them. You can use a mixer or rub them together by hand. You should get a crumbly texture. Add a little more flour if things are too sticky.
Grease a large baking sheet (approx 45 x 35cm) or line it with parchment paper.
The dough should have about doubled in size by now. Briefly knead it once more, then press it into the baking sheet - either by hand or using a rolling pin. It should cover the entire sheet.
Pour on the cherry filling and spread it over the entire base. Sprinkle on the Streusels so you get a relatively even layer that should cover most of the cherry filling.
Now turn on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. While the oven preheats, the dough has a little time to rise once again.
Once the oven is heated, bake on the middle rack for about 25 minutes. The Streusels should be golden brown and crunchy and the base should be fully baked.
Streusel Cake is often served with a little whipped cream on top or on the side.
Because of its bread-like base, Streusel Cake is best eaten on the day it is made as the base will start to get stale very quickly. However, you can also freeze any leftover cake and defrost it when needed.