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.
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 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:
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.
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.