Jippii it is cherry time! I was so happy to be able to pick first juicy cherries. We have three cherry trees in our yard and every year it is the same competition. Me versus starlings! Those little buggers will not eat sour cherries, only the sweet ones!

Because the spring was so warm there are plenty of cherries to go around, even for those stealing little buggers…

Kiddo asked me already last week that when the cherries are done could I bake “Spuckkuchen” (spitting cake). He loves that! The reason is that you can sit outside, eat cake and spit the cherry pits out, or discreetly remove them from your mouth 😉  However you do it this cake is great!

This cake has yeast dough bottom so it will be nice and fluffy. I added some cardamom and cinnamon on the dough already. The reason why the pits are not going to remove is that the cherries will hold the yummy juice inside and be so juicy and delicious after baking. Anyway who does not like spitting cherry pits? let’s have a contest! What’s your record? Mine is 18m 25cm… I am not so good at it.

This is what you will need for the dough: 

• 2 dl milk
• 75 dl sugar
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50 g yeast
• about 500g Spelt flour, fine
• 100 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

For the filling you will need:

• about 1,5-2kg cherries
• 200g soft butter
• some cinnamon and brown sugar

1. Warm up the milk to 42 °C (to activate the dry yeast), mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.
2. Mix the yeast cube to the warm milk. Dissolve it proper. Please be careful that the milk is not too hot, otherwise, it might kill your yeast.
3. Add slowly the flour (more or less, depending on the dough consistency. Too much flour and the bottom will be hard). At last, add the melted butter.
   Knead until dough is uniform, smooth and soft.
4. Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with a damp tea cloth. Leave in a warm spot for about 40 minutes until the dough has doubled its size.
5. When raised enough, remove the dough from the bowl, knead it on a flour-dusted surface, “punching it down” (removes the gas formed during the fermentation). With the help of the rolling-pin, roll out the dough so that it is the size of your oven pan.
6. Lift the dough on your baking sheet or pan and brush the dough with melted butter then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.

1. Arrange the cherries on top and set aside to rise about 30 minutes.
2.  Heat oven to 190 °C . Bake in center of the oven for 10-15 minutes (till lightly brown), remove and let cool on a rack.

   

Serve as it is or maybe you would like to have some vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce with it? Enjoy!