Cherry pound cake with compote
Serves: 10
Prep time: 55 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Kris Kirkham
Cherry pound cake with compote
Pound cakes were traditionally made with a pound of each ingredient – eggs, sugar, flour and butter. This is the same basic recipe, but using half a pound of each, so you can fit it in a normal loaf tin. It’s a dense, moist cake that is delicious served with the sweet and juicy cherry compote, along with a big dollop of clotted cream – a lovely twist on a traditional cream tea
Serves: 10
Prep time: 55 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
520Kcal
Fat
23gr
Saturates
13gr
Carbs
68gr
Sugars
51gr
Fibre
5gr
Protein
8gr
Salt
0.3gr
Rebecca Woollard
Rebecca Woollard started her culinary career as a chalet cook. She is now a food stylist and recipe writer with 10 years of magazine experience.
See more of Rebecca Woollard’s recipes
Rebecca Woollard
Rebecca Woollard started her culinary career as a chalet cook. She is now a food stylist and recipe writer with 10 years of magazine experience.
See more of Rebecca Woollard’s recipes
Ingredients
For the compote
- 1kg cherries, stoned
- 120-140g caster sugar – add the larger amount if your cherries aren’t very sweet
- juice of 2 oranges
For the cake
- 225g soft unsalted butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 5 medium eggs
- 225g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3-4 heaped tbsp icing sugar
- 2 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted in a dry pan until golden
Step by step
Get ahead
The cherry compote keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge. The cake is best eaten on the day it’s made, but leftover slices can be briefly warmed in the microwave to refresh.
- For the compote, put the stoned cherries, sugar and orange juice in a saucepan over a medium heat. Allow the sugar to dissolve, then bring to a simmer, stirring often, for 25-30 minutes, until the cherries are soft and the juice quite syrupy. Reserve 220g of the compote and spread this on a plate to cool quickly if you’re making the cake immediately, otherwise cool the whole lot and store in the fridge until needed.
- To make the cake, preheat the oven to 170°C, fan 150°C, gas 31⁄2, butter a 900g loaf tin and line with baking paper. Spoon the 220g cherry compote into a sieve set over a bowl to catch the juice. Keep the rest of the compote to serve with the finished cake. Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. If the mixture looks about to curdle, add a tablespoon of the measured flour.
- Mix the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt and fold into the cake mixture. Spoon a third of the mixture into the loaf tin, and scatter over a third of the drained compote. Top with a second third of the mixture, and scatter over the second third of the compote. Spoon over the last of the cake mixture and scatter with the remaining compote, poking the cherries in so they’re almost covered with cake mixture. Keep the cherry juice for the icing.
- Bake the cake for 1 hour 20-1 hour 30 minutes, until a skewer poked into the middle comes out without any mixture sticking to it. Leave the cake to stand in the tin for 10 minutes, before removing and cooling completely on a wire rack
- To make the icing, add 3 tablespoons of the icing sugar to the reserved juice from the drained cherries, and stir using a fork until smooth – you should end up with a thick glacé icing. If it’s too runny, add the remaining tablespoon of icing sugar. Drizzle this all over the cake once it’s completely cool, and then scatter with the almonds. To serve, cut the cake into generous slices, and top with a good spoonful of compote and a dollop of clotted cream.
