Happy Friday from New York City! Today’s post is going to transport you to New Zealand with this cake take on a local classic, the Cherry Ripe bar. Taking advantage of fresh cherry season and some delicious coconut cake that is frosted in a rich chocolate buttercream.

How are you lovely people doing? How is life? I’ve been out of action mostly for two reasons the past nine weeks: firstly, I’m traveling around the States and, secondly, I’ve been doing an online course in HTML and CSS aka web design. Have you ever signed on to learn something new and then felt like you are well above your head?

I can’t quite vocalize how little faith I had in my brain to learn this stuff and implement it, but somehow some things have stuck and I can speak the basic language of coding. I finished high school over a decade ago and while I have studied since then, I never went to university so being this immersed in something as tough as this course was terrifying. I’d love to hear how if you have done a part-time course or immersed yourself fully into learning a new trade? What tips would you give to someone thinking of doing this? My tip is that no matter how terrifying it may seem, you’ll do great as long as you don’t let your inadequacy get you down and just keep on.

Meanwhile, cherry season is nearly over and it’s awfully sad, so let’s make this cherry cake that is subtly sweet and relish the beauty of this ingredient. Truth be told, cherries are incredibly expensive in New Zealand so I never buy them there. Suffice to say my mother would give in and buy one box of them, discounted, maybe once every three summers and because she loved them so much I always felt they were her treat so have only been able to enjoy this fruit in the past three years.

Notes: The cherry juice in this recipe is homemade by simply blending pitted cherries, that way you ensure you control how sweet, approximately 1 1/4 cups of fresh cherries make enough juice for the cake and soak in this.

You can make the cake a day ahead, but the soak should be done while warm and then refrigerate until an hour before you frost.

With the remaining cake pieces and frosting, you can make a batch of cake truffles, roll in cocoa powder or desiccated coconut as per my image.

Cherry Ripe Cake
Recipe by Roamingtaste
Serves 8

Ingredients:
Cherry Ripe Cake
200 grams/7 ounces butter, room temperature
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup fresh cherry juice (see note)
Cherry Soak
2 tablespoons coconut milk
2 tablespoons fresh cherry juice (see note)
1 tablespoon sugar
Chocolate Frosting
2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
230 grams/8.1 ounces, butter, room temperature
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
20 grams chocolate, melted and room temperature
Cocoa powder to finish

Directions:
Grease a slice or bar tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180ºC/350F.

Place the butter and sugars in a bowl and beat until light and creamy, approximately 1 minute. Add in 1 egg and beat until combined, continue with the remaining eggs.

Add in the vanilla extract and beat to combine until creamy.

Add the desiccated coconut, flour and baking powder and beat on low until just combined.

Lastly, add the cherry juice and beat on low until just combined.

Pour the cake batter evenly into the cake tin (it will be quite thick) and bake for 30 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining cherry juice, coconut milk and sugar in a pouring bowl and evenly pour over the cake slowly while it’s still warm.

Set the cake aside to cool fully. Cut out two layers from the cake tin with a 5 inch cake cutter and then place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

To make the chocolate frosting, place the butter, confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl and whip until smooth and creamy, approximately 1 minute.

Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined.

To frost, place the bottom layer on a plate and spread half the frosting evenly over the top.

Add the top layer and spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top and on the edges, smoothing out.

Take a little cocoa powder and dab around the center.

Refrigerate for an hour to set the buttercream.

Slice and serve.

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