Cherry Vanilla Delight and Cooking with Silicone Bakeware

My quest continues to expand my baking skills. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some very inexpensive silicone bakeware from Amazon. After the success of the the Blueberry Yogurt Cake using the silicone swirl pan, I decided to try the bigger silicone pan today. I had two large bunches of fresh bing cherries and I thought, mmmmm, the cherries might make a nice cake.

For this cake I used the following ingredients, my purple silicone 12 cup cake pan and a stand mixer.

Ingredients:

1 Classic White Cake Mix
3/4 cup egg whites
1 - 3.41 oz box Royal Instant Greek Yogurt Pudding Mix - Cherry Flavor
1 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 cup water
2 tsp white vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups fresh pitted and chopped cherries
Baking spray with flour to coat pan

Pit and chop washed cherries, set aside. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking pan with baking spray and use brush to ensure all inside surfaces of the bundt pan are coated evenly. Alternatively you can coat your baking pan with butter or shortening and then add flour and tap out extra if you don't have the baking spray. I prefer the baking spray, seems to be lower in calories and fat and its just easier for me!

In a mixer, add white cake mix, egg whites, water, oil, vanilla extract, pudding mix and blend on medium high for 3 minutes until smooth. Gently crush cherries slightly to extract some of their juices. Stir into batter gently by hand to coat.

Pour into prepared cake pan, turning pan to ensure batter is distributed evenly. Place a towel on the counter and gently tap pan several times on counter to ensure pan crevices are filled and air bubbles are released. This will prevent air bubbles in your cake.

Place in pre heated oven and bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Because I was using a silicone pan, I actually needed to extend the baking time to 72 minutes at 350 degrees. This was a bit of a surprise, but it seems that silicone bakeware cooks the cake slower and therefore one needs to adjust the baking time accordingly. I know adding pudding mix to the cake batter increases the overall baking time also. After 50 minutes of baking, I would suggest checking for doneness in increments of 5 minutes until the cake is fully baked to your liking.


Place pan on cooling arch and cool for 30 minutes in pan. Invert serving platter on top of pan and turn over releasing the cake from pan. Tap sides if needed to release cake.


Continue to cool pan on platter on cooling rack for 90 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar. I like to sift mine through a small sieve/strainer to avoid sugar lumps.
This cake is delicious served with cherry vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and more fresh cherries.


I recommend covering and storing in the refigerator if there are leftovers.

Makes 12 servings.