Cherry Beet Cake

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Last night I went to my monthly book & bake club where we all had to bake a Dan Lepard recipe. Now with all the things going on at the moment with Dan's publisher on a bit of a rampage I thought I'd play it safe and do what he suggests, linking to the recipe and talking about it. I don't want a telling off after all!

The recipe can be found on the Guardian website and in Dan's book Short & Sweet. My cake tins were a lot bigger, 23cm rather than the suggested 18cm so I ended up doubling it up (apart from the streusel topping) to get 2 decent layers. Because of my last minute decision I didn't have quite enough cherries so I added some sultanas to make up the numbers with good results. After my failed lamingtons the other day I was worried that
1. I had lost my baking mojo
2. Short & Sweet wasn't as good as I had hoped.
I breathed a massive sigh of relief when I finally got to have a taste and saw that I hadn't ended up with another dense inedible cake. The ground almonds and almond extract give the cake a lovely marzipan flavour and the cherries & beetroot add a lovely sweetness and moistness. It is still a fairly heavy cake so you wouldn't necessarily be able to manage a big slice but its definitely one to impress with. Don't let the beetroot put you off,  it just helps to inject some moisture. I should also add that I couldn't find sour cherries so I used Urban Fruit's dried cherries and it was delicious. I did wonder how the sourness of the cherries would affect the overall flavour of the cake so I will make sure I use them next time to experiment.

Anyway, I'll stop babbling. We're flying to Warsaw this evening and need to leave for the airport in about an hour. I'm really looking forward to trying some more Polish food, although I only today found out what aspic is and its safe to say I will be trying to stay away from it. Bring on the pierogi & placki though!