Grandma's Cherry Cake

No, I am not sick and tired of cherries yet.

I am actually little upset going camping for 8 days and coming back to probably bare cherry trees.

Pickers have been working on picking for last 4 days and I have a feeling with the weather being so hot lately the cherries in my backyard will be done within a week.

Before they are gone completely there is still few recipes I can share with you.

Growing up in Slovakia my grandma used to have this huge cherry tree.

Every year during the cherry season she made delicious and moist cherry cake.



It was very simple and easy to make.

Of course, I being me had to put my own little gourmet twist on that.

Ingredients:

• 6 Large Eggs
• 300g Icing Sugar
• 200ml Water
• 200ml Oil (any vegetable oil is fine)
• 250g All Purpose Flour
• 1Tbsp Baking Powder
• 3 cups Fresh Pitted Cherries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 15”x10” baking pan with wax paper.

Beat 6 egg yolks with the icing sugar till nice and fluffy. Stir water and oil into the mixture.

Slowly mix in the flour and baking powder.

Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the paper lined pan.

Coat the cherries with flour and spread them evenly over the top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top of the cake is nice and golden brown. Let it cool for a few minutes then dust with icing sugar.

Serve it as a coffee cake or special dessert with cool whip or vanilla ice cream.

Tip: Sometimes I soak the cherries overnight in Kirschwasser (cherry liqueur).

Cherry Oatmeal Bars

It's cherry season in the Okanagan and since my backyard is few acres of cherry trees in many different varieties I have unlimited supply of fresh cherries for about 5 weeks.

I love cherries and nothing beat the taste of ice cold and crunchy cherry.

Since there is an abundance of cherries right under my nose I decided to take advantage of it and try many recipes and dishes using fresh cherries.



Last night I decided to make something between cobbler and crumble.

I call it Cherry Oatmeal Bars.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Cherries (pitted)
• 11/2 cup Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 11/2 cup Oats
• 11/2 cup Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Butter (softened)

In the pot combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Cook the filling until thick.

Let it cool down completely.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a bowl combine together oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar. Mix well and add chopped up butter.Work it into a crust.

Pat 2/3 of the crust mixture into greased 9" x 9" pan.

Cover with layer of cherry filling and spread the rest of the crust.

Sprinkle with some oats and cinnamon.



Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.




Cool before cutting and serve with vanilla ice cream.