Cherry Poppy Seed Cake and an OXO Scale Giveaway

Before we get to the recipe of this German cherry poppy seed cake I would like to share with you a little story from my previous life.

I was working for several years at a pharmacy in my hometown in Germany. We had a dermatologist office located in the same building as the pharmacy. The dermatologist was one of my school friend’s dad. He was a very nice doctor and he cared a lot about his patients. He was known to prefer prescribing compound medications. Most off his prescriptions were brought to our pharmacy. Along with filling prescriptions and advising customers, I was the one in charge of preparing the compound medications. I loved this work. My little lab spot, the ingredients, my scale, knowing that the finished product would have to be perfect. This work nurtured my love for baking.

I stopped working at the pharmacy a few month before my son was born, but what stayed with me until today and makes my life in the kitchen so much easier is a good functioning scale. I use it every single time I am baking.

 

I truly enjoyed using this  OXO Good Grips scale to bake my cherry poppy seed cake and would like to send one to you.  This scale was given to me by OXO for free to share with one of my readers. The OXO Good Grips food scale weighs in ounces/ grams and up to 5 lb. It is light and small, which makes for very easy storage. Personally, I think, one of the best features is the pull away display. This detail makes for much better visibility of the display while allowing a larger bowl or plate to sit on the scale.

To take part in the giveaway I am asking you first to become a follower of my blog and second to share this give away with your followers/ readers or friends. Tweet about it, post it on your Facebook page, share it on Pinterest or mention it in your next blog post. I will leave this decision up to you. Then come back, let me know how you follow, where you shared this OXO scale give away and how you would like to use this scale in your daily life. I am very sorry, but you have to live in the US to be able to participate.

Good luck to all of you! This OXO Good Grips food scale give-away will stay open until midnight 3/30/2012, MST. The winner will be picked randomly and will be announced on Saturday 3/31/2012.

Now, finally,  I would like to share with you this moist German cherry poppy seed cake as my labor of love from my kitchen to yours. The recipe calls for lots of poppy seeds and cherries, just how my family likes it. The batter is enhanced with almonds, pure almond extract and vanilla and gets baked on a simple sheet pan. It is very quick to assemble and ready in no time.

My family loves the taste of this cherry poppy seed cake, since it is not overwhelmingly sweet and the flavors of the cherries, the almonds and the poppy seeds complement each other exceptionally well. I am convinced you will enjoy it, too. I would also recommend bringing this cherry poppy seed cake to a pot luck, since it feeds a crowd and is very easy to transport. Just leave it in the baking pan and dust the cake with the confectioners after your arrival.

Enjoy!

Cherry Poppy Seed Cake

5.0 from 4 reviews

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Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: about 24 pieces

Ingredients

• ¾ cup 2 Tablespoons (200 ml) milk
• 4.41 ounces (125 g) poppy seeds, ground in a coffee grinder (not too fine)
• 1⅔ cup (200 g) flour
• 1 cup (100 g) almonds, ground (or use almond flour)
• a pinch of salt
• 3 Tablespoons baking powder, (Kirsten used 2½ for altitude adjustment)
• 12.35 ounces, 1 cup 1½ Tablespoons (350 g) unsalted butter, at room temp.
• 8.82 ounces, 1¼ cup (250 g) sugar
• 6 eggs, at room temp.
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) almond extract
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
• 13.4 ounces, 3½ cups (380 g) frozen organic cherries, ( Kirsten used premium dark, sweet, pitted)
• confectioners sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 F (160 C) Convection. Grease a 16x12x1 inch (40.6x30.5x2.54 cm) baking pan. Set aside.
2. Heat the milk in a pot and add the poppy seeds. Let simmer on low for 2-3 minutes. Take pot off the heat and let the poppy seed milk sit covered for about 10 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In a stand-mixer with the paddle attachment whisk the butter and sugar until creamy on medium-high speed , about 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the bowl after each addition. Mix in the vanilla, almond extract and poppy seed milk.
5. Set the stand-mixer on low speed and add the flour mixture slowly until well combined. Don't over mix!
6. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan and distribute the cherries onto the batter.
7. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake removes cleanly.
8. Let the cake cool in the pan and dust with confectioners sugar before cutting into squares.

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Tagged as: almond extract, almonds, cherries, poppy seeds, vanilla