I adore cherries, they are one of my favourite fruits. I recently realised I still had a bowl of them in the fridge and wondered what to do with them. Then it dawned on me – a cherry frangipane! This is one of my favourite recipes and one that I crave all the time. I especially adore almond extract so any reason to use it and I’m in!
My recipe is more of a frangipane cake as I have spent a lot of time experimenting with low-carb and low fat pastry recipes (I try not to use butter if I can avoid it, just to cut down on fat content), but I have to admit I don’t really like any that I’ve tried or created – they don’t taste overly great and the texture is far from the nice flaky kind you get at the local patisserie – I admit though, it’s not the low-carb factor that does it, it’s the fact that I don’t like to use butter, and I admit that’s my choice, I could quite easily achieve a nice base if I used it. I have even experimented with olive oil pastry, but again, I wasn’t too fond of this option either. So, in an effort to keep my recipe low-fat and low-carb, I decided to experiment with a frangipane cake alternative and I just LOVE it. This is the closest recipe I could find to a frangipane cake Foodily, but again, my version is low-fat, low-carb and no sugar.
I like to serve my frangipane cakes with a berry jam, especially in summer as the berries are gorgeous. There are lots of recipes that call for ‘fruit jam’ in between the frangipane batter mixture, but I like to serve mine on the side, not in the cake, as an optional extra. Here’s my recipe and I hope it gets you in the summer spirit!
Low-carb Mini Cherry Frangipane Cakes
Ingredients
- 200 g almond meal
- 1/4 tsp pure Stevia extract powder (or preferred sweetener)
- 200 g fresh cherries
- 50 g Greek yoghurt (or preferred full fat, unflavoured yoghurt)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp rose water
- 10 g flaked almonds (for the top)
- 1 tsp pure unsweetened vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 cup full fat milk
For the berry jam: 300g fresh cherries, 80g blueberries, 4 strawberries, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2, tsp almond extract, 1/2 cup water.
Instructions
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To make the cakes, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
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Wash and remove pits from the cherries and cut in half (place in a bowl to garnish the tops of the cakes).
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Combine almond meal, sweetener, yoghurt, eggs, almond extract, rose water, vanilla extract and milk in a bowl and mix until well combined.
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Pour mixture into four mini baking tins.
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Garnish the tops of the cakes with cherries and flaked almonds.
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Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25-30mins.
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To make the berry jam, wash the cherries, blueberries and strawberries. Cut the cherries in half and the strawberries into quarters.
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Add all fruit to a pot along with the almond extract and bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 15 minutes.
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Add the chia seeds, mix well and simmer for another 15 minutes. You can mash the fruit with the back of a spoon slightly if you prefer your jam finer in texture.
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Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
This recipe makes four individual portions.
Please note: I use 100% Pure Stevia Extract powder for this recipe. If you are using another form of Stevia, or an alternate sweetener, you may need to experiment with the quantity required.
