I found this excellent cherry cake in the handwritten recipe notes of my great-grandmother Jenny (1883-1940). The base is a shortcrust pastry that is pre-baked until crispy, followed by juicy sweet cherries or morello cherries, which can either be fresh or taken from a jar. The finish is then a creamy filling made of eggs and sour cream. There were many fruit trees and a large vegetable garden on Jenny's parents' property. A large cherry tree was also part of it, from which even the grandchildren were allowed to pick the fruit. Woe to those who ate too many cherries while harvesting and then complained of stomach ache in the evening.
For the dough:
375 grams of flour
250 grams of butter
125 grams of raw cane sugar
1 egg
For the filling:
Sweet or sour cherries, freshly pitted or pickled and drained from the glass
For the glaze:
500 millilitres of sour cream
4 egg yolks
1-2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar
1 lemon, grated zest
1 tablespoon of starch
24-26 cm springform tin, greased
1. Knead the flour, butter, sugar and egg quickly to a shortcrust pastry and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough, place in a greased springform tin and form an evenly high edge.
3. Pre-bake the cake base in the oven preheated to 200 ° C for about 15 minutes.
4. Now distribute the pitted cherries on the cake base.
5. If using fresh cherries, bake them slightly in the oven at 200 ° C for 5-10 minutes.
6. Make a glaze from the specified ingredients and distribute it evenly over the cherries.
7. Bake the cake at 200 ° C for a further 20-25 minutes until golden.