Angel Cake with Cherries | Recipe

This delicious cherry angel cake is sure to impress these holidays. The hardest part will be deciding who gets a slice with a cherry on top!

Ingredients

For the base

• 5 egg whites at room temperature 
• 1 heaping teaspoon/4g cream of tartar
• 1 vanilla bean (pod)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2/3 cup/140g superfine (caster) sugar
• scant 2/3 cup/75g type “00” flour or all-purpose (plain) flour
• pinch of salt 

For the cherry syrup

• 2¼ cups/500g cherries
• scant ½ cup/100g sugar
• 1½ tablespoons/20ml water
• 3-cm cinnamon stick
• 1 unwaxed lemon 

To decorate

• scant 1 cup/200ml heavy (whipping) cream
• 4 tablespoons/30g confectioners’ (icing) sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of the stand mixer, add the cream of tartar, seeds from the vanilla bean (pod), and the lemon juice, poured through a strainer (sieve). Start to whisk on a medium speed until the whisk starts to form a trace on the surface. Increase the speed and add the sugar, a teaspoonful at a time, whisking continuously as you do so. Continue to whisk for about 10 minutes at maximum speed, until you obtain a very firm, glossy meringue.

Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into the bowl and gently fold it into the meringue with a silicone spatula, taking care not to deflate the mixture. Pour into the cake pan (tin), level the surface, and bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until golden, risen, and firm to the touch. Do not insert a skewer into the cake to test it, as it can deflate the cake. Remove the cake from the oven, immediately invert it onto a cooling rack, and leave to cool without removing the pan. To make the cherry syrup, wash and pit (stone) the cherries using the pitting tool, remove the stalks, and place in a saucepan with the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, pared zest from the lemon, and strained juice of half the lemon. Put over low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat to medium and cook for 6–7 minutes. Pour into a fine-mesh strainer (sieve) set over a bowl

to collect the juice. Return the juice to the saucepan and cook for a further 2–3 minutes until it becomes syrupy. Leave to cool.

Remove the cake by running the blade of a small knife between the edges of the cake and the pan. Whip the cream to soft peaks with the confectioners’ (icing) sugar and spoon or pipe it over the top of the cake. Decorate with half of the cherries and drizzle over some of the syrup. Serve with the remaining cherries and syrup.