chocolate cherry cakes

As part of my birthday celebrations in December, I finally made my way over to Donna Hay's General Store in Woollahra to check it out. It's a really gorgeous little store, I wanted to buy too many things in there and in the end, left the shop with some pie moulds, a baking tin and a jar of grapefruit marmalade which I've been eagerly digging into.

Mum went and got me Donna's latest cookbook for my birthday, 'Fast, Fresh, Simple' and so far have made a reasonably good effort to try out the recipes. I mentioned this awhile back but I do have a whole 60L container at home dedicated to Donna Hay magazines and cookbooks and out of all the cookbooks I have, Donna's are ones which I go back to time and time again.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 125g chopped dark chocolate and 155g unsalted butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. In a large bowl, place 3 eggs, 75g caster sugar, 100g plain flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 120g almond meal, 60mL sherry (actual recipe calls for brandy which I didn't have at home) and chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into cupcake holders and press a cherry into the top.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if the cakes are cooked. Makes 12.

The photo in the book got my attention and I was glad to find that they came out of the oven just as cute.

These cakes are a cross between a cupcake and a friand. Not quite as crumbly as a friand and not as sweet as a regular cupcake. The addition of the alcohol make its quite a festive treat and even for those who don't generally like alcohol in their food didn't mind it too much, said that they couldn't taste it. The alcohol does give it a certain richness though and methinks I should head to the bottle-o and get myself a bottle of brandy. I keep coming across recipes with brandy in it!

Anyway, so here's recipe number 3 with cherries in it. I have one more to share!