Amiexpat's Blankenhainer Kirschkuchen Challenge!

I took Amiexpat's Blankenhainer Cherry Cake Challenge, and I almost blew up my mixer because of it!

The first part of the recipe said that I should beat the yolks with sugar until it was "foamy." Since I had no experience beating up yolks to a foam, I thought that It would puff up like egg whites. I beat the eggs with my mixer a good fifteen minutes, and got something that looked like pancake batter. Is it supposed to look that way?

I googled "beat yolks foamy" and I found out that foamy egg yolks should be lemony-colored. I long passed that stage! I guess I overbeat the yolks. Oops. My mixer was really hot to the touch and smelled like rubber, and I didn't want to use it to beat the whites, but I needed my mixer. Thank God it didn't explode on me.

It was a breeze to do the rest. What I liked about the cake was that it didn't call for any shortening or leavening agents, and I was curious how THAT would turn out.

I don't have a cherry pit remover. I used 350 grams of preserved cherries and 150 grams of fresh cherries that I pitted myself. Like Amiexpat, I basically split the cherries in half with a paring knife and chucked it in. I baked it for 30 minutes. The cake didn't look ready at the 20 minute mark as suggested in the recipe, and judging from Amiexpat's experience, it seemed like the right thing to do.

What I liked about the cake was that it wasn't so sweet. I sprinkled brown sugar over the cake, and it really needed that extra sweetness. I had some batter left over and put it in a separate baking pan, but didn't sprinkle sugar over it, so it wasn't as sweet as I wanted it. The crushed almonds gave the cake a nice crunch and texture, I think I'll use more ground almonds in my recipes.

The consistency of the cake was actually more bread-like,kind of dry. I think that it had to do with me overbeating the yolks. I'll try to go easy on the mixer next time.