Cherry-Vanilla Shortbread Cake Squares

This was a very interesting idea and the flavour was quite good “ the cake was buttery with great vanilla flavour and the vanilla bean paste did improve the flavour of the canned cherries.

The batter was easy to make but it was quite thick and there was a very small amount to spread over a rather large sheet pan. The recipe didn’t offer any tips on the best way to do this: I dropped the batter in 12 spoonfuls over the area of the pan and used a wet, off-set spatula to spread it evenly.

With such a dense batter and a relatively long baking time, I think it was impossible for these to bake evenly so the pieces around the perimeter of the pan were drier and more cookie-like than the centre pieces, which were moist and cake-like.

The baked cherries had a thin, gummy layer on them after baking that I didn’t care for…….I would have preferred the cherry compote the author had originally considered using.

I did like the combination of cherries with vanilla cake but I think there are better recipes out there that showcase these ingredients.