Sour Cherry Speculaas Cake

This Sour Cherry Speculaas cake is the best from both worlds. The Speculaas flavor makes you think of Christmas, after the first bite you take, but the fruity sour cherry filling and light, airy whipped cream make this cake different than all the other heavy, buttery holiday cakes. It consists out of 3 layers and is a really easy recipe. Even the ones who are not so experienced in the kitchen won´t have a problem mastering this cake.

What is Speculaas spice?

Speculaas spice is a spice mixture containing cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and white pepper. It is used in delicious Speculaas cookies, which are very popular in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and some other European countries. Even though in most of these countries you can buy these cookies all year long, they are most popular during the Christmas season. And that is exactly why I love baking this cake in the winter months. One bite is already enough to get you into that Christmas feeling.

If you´re having trouble finding Speculaas spice where you live, don´t worry.

If they don´t sell this spice mixture where you live and you want to bake the sour cherry speculaas cake, don´t worry, there are ways to substitute it:

• Trying to make your own mixture: you can try making your own Speculaas spice mixture by mixing cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and white pepper.
• Using gingerbread spice: even though these spice mixtures are not the same, they share a lot of ingredients. Gingerbread spice has a more dominant ginger flavor but it also has that “Christmasy” flavor we are going for in this cake.
• Using just some of the spices from the Speculaas spice mixture: If you don´t want to buy all of these different spices, you won´t go wrong by using for example only cinnamon and cloves. It won´t taste the same but these two spices are definitely the most dominant ones in the mixture, and they will guarantee that Christmas flavor.
• Omitting the Speculaas spice: if you don´t like any of the options listed above, you can simply omit the Speculaas spice. The cake will still be delicious, and that way maybe even more fitting for all the seasons of the year.

FAQ

Do I need to use gelatine in the whipped cream?
Using gelatine is just one way of stabilizing whipped cream. If you don´t stabilize it, it won´t keep its shape for long. If you don´t want to use gelatine, there are some alternatives. You can use whipped cream stabilizer on a cornstarch basis or you can add some mascarpone to your whipped cream.

How to store sour cherry speculaas cake and can I freeze it?
You should keep this cake in the fridge for preferably no longer than 3 days. I wouldn´t recommend freezing this cake because of the whipped cream it contains. The reason being is that whipped cream sometimes changes the consistency when frozen.

Can I use cherries instead of sour cherries?
I prefer the taste of sour cherries in cakes because they are more aromatic. Also, I enjoy a good sweet-and-sour combination. That being said, you can substitute sour cherries for sweet cherries, without a problem.

Print Recipe

Sour Cherry Speculaas Cake

Author: Paula Cooking Method: Baking Courses: Dessert

Difficulty: Intermediate Prep Time 60 min Cook Time 30 min Rest Time 180 min Total Time 4 hrs 30 mins

Best Season: Winter

Ingredients

Servings

For the cocoa speculaas sponge cake:

• 2 eggs
• 160 grams sugar
• 15 grams vanilla sugar (you can replace it with vanilla extract)
• 225 grams all-purpose flour
• 15 grams cocoa
• 125 milliliters oil (I used sunfllower oil)
• 250 milliliters milk
• 10 grams baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons Speculaas spice
• 150 grams walnuts (chopped)

For the our cherry filling

• 500 grams sour cherries
• 500 milliliters sour cherry/cherry juice (see notes)
• 40 grams cornstarch
• 20 grams vanilla sugar (you can substitute for vanilla extract but then you have to increase the amount of sugar)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or more, depending on the juice you use)

For whipped cream:

• 1 liter heavy cream
• 9 grams ground gelatine
• 3 tablespoons vanilla sugar (or sugar+vanilla extract)

Additional:

• cocoa for dusting

Instructions

1. For the cake:

   1. Beat the eggs with sugar until the mixture becomes white and fluffy.
   2. Combine all the wet and all the dry ingredients and add them alternately to the egg and sugar mixture.
   3. In the end, mix in the chopped walnuts and bake it at 180 C until the toothpick comes out clean. Leave it to cool down.

2. For the sour cherry filling:

   1. Put the sour cherries and juice ( minus 3 Tbsp) in a pot and bring it to a boil.
   2. In the meantime combine cornstarch, sugar (see notes), vanilla sugar, and the remaining 3 Tbsp of juice until you get a smooth mixture.
   3. Add it to the boiling cherries, lower the heat, and whisk until it thickens (you are looking for pudding consistency).
   4. Pour it over the cake while still warm and leave it to cool down. Once the cake has cooled down to room temperature, put it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before adding the whipped cream.

3. For the whipped cream:

   1. Beat the cream on low speed for cca 2 minutes. Add vanilla sugar and continue beating on high speed until you get firm whipped cream.
   2. Prepare your gelatine as suggested on the package (mixing it with water and leaving it for a couple of minutes).
   3. Now melt your gelatine and add one spoon of whipped cream into it. Combine it well and then add it to the remaining whipped cream. Mix it in fast using a stand mixer, so that it doesn´t clump.
   4. Put half of the whipped cream on the cake and spread it evenly. Put the other half in a pipping bag and decorate. I also added some cocoa on top, but that step is completely optional.

Note

Sour Cherries- I used frozen sour cherries, which naturally contained some juice from the fruit. I used that juice and added bought cherry juice to get 0.5 liters of liquid altogether. If you are using sour cherries from a glass, feel free to use the liquid they are preserved in. Because I added cherry juice (which is relatively sweet) I didn´t use much sugar. If you are using only sour cherry juice, you might want to add some more sugar.