I’m making a cake for a dinner party tomorrow that calls for sour cherries, both in the batter and in the frosting (which isn’t really frosting in the usual sense, but rather an obscene amount of sour cream - 2 cups! - flavored with more chopped sour cherries, chopped walnuts, sugar, and cherry liqueur, which I intend to substitute either with kirsch or with raspberry liqueur, because I refuse to buy a whole bottle of cherry liqueur just for 3 tablespoons just for this one recipe, because that’s how I ended up with an entire bottle of green creme de menthe, but I digress).
So I checked 2 stores (Trader Joe’s and Jewel), and neither had frozen sour cherries, only sweet cherries, and Jewel had canned sour cherries, but canned fruit annoys me, plus I refuse to spend $7 on the amount of inferior canned cherries that I would need. They did, however, have canned sweet cherries. The cake needs to chill overnight, and I have no time to go hunting all over the city for sour cherries, which aren’t in season anyway. So I decided to make the cake with sweet cherries - it may not be quite so authentically Slavic that way (the dinner party is Russian-themed), but with all that sour cream, how can it taste bad?
And now, my actual question - is there any way I can help give this cake the more authentic taste of sour cherries if I am actually using sweet cherries? Lemon juice? Less sugar? Kirsch for the frosting instead of the sweeter raspberry liqueur? I know it won’t be exactly the same, but what would be the closest?
I think the biggest problem you’re going to have is that the cherry taste won’t come through as much with sweet cherries as it would with sour. They just aren’t assertive enough.
Given that, I’d go ahead and add lemon juice and maybe reduce some of the other liquid in the cake. I’d thaw the cherries, then add lemon juice and stir. Give 'em a taste and see if the acid comes through - if not, add more lemon juice.
For what it’s worth, I noticed the other day that GFS Markets carry big bags of frozen sour cherries. I’d been looking for them for a recipe as well. I haven’t tried them, but I’m pretty sure GFS stores are in Illinois. Maybe try them next time?
Careful with the lemon juice. If you add too much, it’ll cause your baking powder to react too quickly; giving you a flat cake.
I’d substitute cranberries for the cherries in the cake, or perhaps a mix of cranberries and sweet cherries. You’ll want to nuke the cranberries for about 4 min/pound, until they pop, and let them cool before stirring into the batter. Cranberry/walnut cake is a regular around here, and it works a treat. Go with sweet cherries in the frosting.
Personally, I would have just gone with the canned sour cherries. I don’t think canned fruit is all that bad when you’re out of season and can’t get it fresh. Otherwise, I feel that sour cherries are a distinct flavor, so I wouldn’t really try faking it by adding lemons or cranberries. However, given the Slavic theme, I bet currants (especially red currants) would work well in the recipe, too. That said, I think you’ll probably have better luck finding frozen sour cherries than currants.
I think canned sour cherries would be fine in a cake. You can make a good cherry pie with canned sour cherries, so why not cake?
On the other hand, if you want to give your cake an extra little kick try soaking some dried sour cherries in cherry liqueur. Trader Joe’s sells dried sour cherries - in my local store they’re in the same section as the nuts and trail mix.
Well, I ended up making the cake with sweet cherries and raspberry liqueur, and it’s all gone now, so it must not have been too horrible. But as I made a last-minute run today to Devon Avenue for bread, I found jarred sour cherries at Ted’s produce market that were much cheaper than the canned ones at Jewel. But even better - when I went to Argo Georgian Bakery to get some of their wonderful chewy Georgian bread, I discovered that they sell frozen sour cherries! $6 for a 2.5 lb. bag - great price for out-of-season fruit that’s difficult to find even when it’s in season (and the season is short anyway). So I may have to make the cake again one of these days to see how it compares.