Cherry and almond loaf (gluten free, dairy free)

This is a good loaf cake for using up any leftover glacé cherries you may have lurking after your Christmas cake/pudding/mincemeat baking. Of course it you have no leftover cherries go by some because this is an amazing cake!

You may notice that the weights are in ounces, except the ground almonds which are in grams, this is because I stole the recipe from my mum.

I took this cake into work to celebrate the fact I passed my viva... 4 years of work but I am now a Dr. Finally I can have a break from reading about science and get baking and blogging.

As always if you do not have an issue with butter or gluten feel free to substitute the DF and GF components with their regular counterparts.

Cherry and almond loaf

6oz dairy free spread (I use pure)
6oz golden caster sugar
3 eggs
tsp almond extract
6oz GF plain flour (I use dove farm)
1/2 tsp xantham gum
4tsp GF baking powder
100g glacé cherries, chopped into 1/2 or 1/4 depending on their size
75g ground almonds

First preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Beat the DF spread and sugar until creamy then beat in the eggs one at a time,  followed by the almond extract. Beat in the flour, xantham gum and baking powder until it is just combined. Rinse the cherries and dry on kitchen paper, this prevents them from sinking to the bottom of your cake. Toss the cherries in the ground almonds, this also helps them stop sinking. then fold the cherries and almond into your cake mix until the cherries are evenly distributed.

Transfer the cake mix to your prepared tin and smooth with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes (mine took just over 40) until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I took a little mix out of the big loaf tin to make a baby cake for the two of us to eat as a tester before I took the big one to work! Sorry for the dark photo, it was evening. I really need to work on my camera skills, if anyone has any tips do let me know!