Tales from a Veggie Kitchen

I'm afraid this was snaffled before any pictures could be taken as I made it for an afternoon tea party. However, you can rest assured that it was delicious and looked wonderful! It's a basic cake recipes with added cherries and ground rice for the crunch. I find it best if you have an electric beater to beat the sugar and butter in the first instance and beat for about 5 minutes. It sounds like a lot, but it's an easier way of knowing you've done it long enough than just looking out for it being "light and fluffy".


Crunchy Cherry Cake

Serves 10-12

Time taken around an hour


175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

175g self-raising flour, sieved (or you can seive it directly into the cake bowl later)

3 medium eggs

25g ground rice

Juice of small lemon (or use just over half of a bigger one)

125g glace cherries, chopped


Preheat oven to 180C


* First thing to do is wash and dry your cherries. This is supposed to help against them sinking. Mine invariably still do, but your mileage may vary!

* Beat the butter and caster sugar for 5 minutes

* Add the eggs one at a time and beat a little in between each one

* Fold in the flour and ground rice with a spoon, a third of the ingredients at a time

* Add the lemon juice and cherries and mix them all together with the spoon

* Put into a tin (I used a loaf tin) and level the surface with the spoon

* Bake in the oven. Time varies hugely depending on the type of tin you use; mine took 45 minutes, which I think is a good standard time. That said, I did put some of the mixture into extra muffin tins because I had too much. Start with 45 minutes and go from there.

* Leave to cool for a few mintes before turning out onto a wire rack for it to cool completely.

This recipe is for a Dutch cake which is thick, soggy and almost pastry-like in textures. I have to admit I didn’t get it quite right the first time, I could have used a less wide pan and I should have cooked it less (I have an obsession about overcooking anything with eggs in). However, I have to use the pans I have, and I don’t have room for more. Mine turned out more like a soft cookie which a chewy outside and soft centre. But despite all my complaining, it was heavenly. If you want the authentic boterkoek, you might want to search for another recipe, or alter it a bit.

A note on the almond essence: I think it could be optional if you have a nut allergy. I’m not sure plain Boterkoek is supposed to be an almond cake, so the small amount should do fine just to enhance flavour. However, my partner and I both LOVE almond flavour, so I doubled the amount.


Dutch Boterkoek

Serves… no idea, but will fit a 8” cake pan with about 1” thickness.
Total time taken 1 hour for a messy cook, 45mins for the more organised!


160g butter

200g sugar

210g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 egg, beaten (reserve a teaspoon of egg for brushing)

1 ½ tsp almond essence

Preheat oven to 180C


* Mix together the butter, sugar and almond essence

* Add the egg and mix in well (all the above best done with an electric beater)

* Sift in the flour and baking powder

* Try and resist eating it already (hard even for me, the raw egg-phobe)

* It should look more like dough than cake batter. Flop it into a cake tin (7-9”) and pat down so it’s even.

* Brush over the top with the reserved egg mixed with equal amount of water.

* Bake for 25-30 minutes. This all depends on the pan and your thickness of cake. A 9” tin only took 25 minutes. I imagine a 7” would take longer. Just observe the colour of the top.

PS no picture, because it didn't looked like I wanted it to!