This black currant amaretto cake recipe is baked with a splash of amaretto which adds a lovely almond flavour that pairs so well with black currants. You can bake this cake recipe in a muffin pan or mason jars for individual small cakes or make one 6-inch cake if you prefer.
In my most recent CSA basket, I got these late-summer berries (pictured below ) and I, the food-lover that I am, did not have a clue what they were. All I did know was that they were NOT blueberries.
Black currants are typically used to make liqueurs. The French term for black currant is cassis
Currants are actually quite common a berry at our local markets and I've baked with red currants before, which I've used to make these red currant muffins or this strawberry and red currant jam. Fresh, currants are quite tart, so they are perfect baked into a sweet late summer cake. I've even made a black currant cake topped with a sweet crumble.
For this recipe, I used yogurt in the cake batter but a common baking substitution would be to replace it with full fat sour cream in the cake batter, which would make these cakes a lot richer. I flavoured the batter with vanilla extract, amaretto, and a touch of organic almond extract to reinforce the flavour of the liqueur. The nutty, amaretto cake is the perfect complement to the tart black currants.
If you don't have black currants, any berry, fresh or frozen, would work well, especially raspberries or blueberries. I think most berries would work really nicely with the almond flavour in this cake recipe. Even chopped apricot or peach would be nice. The cake is not overly spongy, but it isn't dense either.
With certain fruit desserts, when the fruit is mixed into a cake batter, you need a cake with a certain amount of structure to keep the berries from sinking as the cake bakes. Many recipes suggest coating the berries with a little flour (a spoonful is plenty). The flour coating around the berries helps keep them anchored in the cake batter too so don't skip that step. Still, if you baked this cake with a gluten-free flour, like this gluten-free raspberry cake recipe, you might find the berries sink to the bottom no matter what you do…
These cakes would be great served with scoops of homemade ice cream: try them with the classic vanilla bean ice cream, of course, but you could also top them with lemon custard ice cream.
📖 Recipe
Black Currant Amaretto Cakes
Ingredients
- 95 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 2.5 mL baking powder
- 0.625 mL baking soda
- 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 58 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg(s)
- 15 mL amaretto liqueur
- 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 2.5 mL finely grated lemon zest
- 0.625 mL pure almond extract
- 80 mL yogurt (2 % fat)
- 85 grams black currants ¼ pint
- 8 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- Vanilla bean ice cream optional for serving on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease four 250 mL mason jars.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well blended. Set aside for later.
- In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until well blended, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg, beating well until it's incorporated.
- Add the amaretto, vanilla, lemon zest, and almond extract.
- Add the dry ingredients and the yoghurt alternately to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Toss the black currants with 1 tablespoon of flour. Fold the berries into the batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared jars and smooth out the surface.
- Bake until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the cakes comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with scoops of vanilla bean ice cream.
a Palate and a Passport says
Amaretto yum, and the jars look cute!
myfudo says
That quite a unique currant. I bet that taste good too.
Valeria says
lovely idea! I really have to try a recipe in jars and will surely start from here!!
Juanita says
I love the cake in a jar idea...very quaint 🙂