Trader Joe's Has Cherries

Cherries from Germany!

After living in the US for several years, this is the first time I found proper and affordable cherries. It is not hard to find cocktail cherries, or overpriced ones ($7 per small can), but actual cherries in a jar are hard to find. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a large jar of cherries at Trader Joe's. Closer inspection showed why this was possible: The cherries are from Germany! To check out the label on the jar, click on the picture to the right to make it larger.

So, of course I had to make cake with cherries. The first one I made only survived 2 days and I forgot to take a picture of it. It was a cheesecake with greek yoghurt and a crumbly crust - very yummy.

Yesterday I made a second variation, that is a based largely on "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte", but has no layers, does not contain any alcohol, and consists of a mix of greek yoghurt and cream instead of just cream. Here is the result:

It did take a bit of time to make the cake, but it was absolutely worth it. Here is the recipe:

Chocolate sponge cake:

• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp warm water
• 100 g sugar
• vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt Salz
• 75 g flour
• 40 g corn starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp espresso powder

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Beat egg yolks with warm water, vanilla sugar and 2/3 of the sugar until light and creamy (several minutes). In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with the salt and the rest of the sugar. Carefully mix beaten egg whites under egg yolks. Combine flour, baking powder, cocoa and espresso powder, and mix with egg using a spoon. Bake at 355 degrees (180 C) for 25 minutes.

Cherry filling:

• 350g cherries from a jar
• 250ml cherry juice
• 4 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp sugar

I used the cherries and juice from TraderJoes cherries in a jar. Mix starch with sugar and 4 tbsp of the liquid. Boil the rest of the liquid and remove from heat. Mix starch into hot liquid and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, mix in cherries and let cool.

Topping:

• 400g Greek yoghurt
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 40g powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp light colored juice (lemon / orange)
• 1 tbsp gelatin

Once the filling and the sponge cake are cool, you can assemble the cake. If you took your sponge cake out to cool, put the round cake ring from your baking pan back around the cake. Put the cherry filling on top of the sponge cake, but leave some space at the edges.

Combine greek yoghurt and sugar. Soak gelatin in 2 tbsp juice (I used 1 tbsp orange and 1 tbsp lemon juice) for 10 minutes. Then, heat gelatin over low heat until it melts. Beat whipping cream until almost stiff. Mix gelatin with a few tbsp of greek yoghurt, then mix this under the yoghurt mixture and add whipped cream. 

Put cream-yoghurt mixture on top of the cherry filling. Move the cake to the fridge for several hours until the gelatin mixture sets. Remove the cake ring and sprinkle shaved or finely chopped chocolate on top of the cake.