This is an incredibly delicious and delicate cottage cheese cake with berries — its appeal lies in the contrast between the layers. The middle is a silky-smooth cottage cheese and sour cream layer, the bottom is a soft, slightly bitter chocolate sponge, and the top is tart cherries set in a vibrant cherry jelly. I based the filling on the one from my Two-Tone Cottage Cheese Cake and added a simple chocolate sponge as the base. If you prefer, you can make a cookie crust instead, just like in the cake mentioned above (in that case, chocolate cookies would work best). My cherries were frozen — normally, thawed cherries tend to weep too much, shrivel up, and lose their good looks. While that's fine when mixing them into a batter, it's not ideal for decorating the top of a cake. However, if you thaw the cherries using a slightly different method — specifically, in a sugar syrup — the results are much better. The cherries hold their shape and don't shrivel nearly as much. So even with frozen cherries, meaning any time of year, you can make a truly impressive-looking cake. I used 9% smooth-style cottage cheese and 20% sour cream (as I do in all my recipes).
Ingredients:
- Cake layer:
- 2 eggs
- 60 g sugar
- 40 g flour
- 20 g cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder (level)
- Filling:
- 400 g cottage cheese
- 400 g sour cream
- 120 g sugar
- 1 packet gelatin (10 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- Also:
- 500 g cherries (frozen or fresh)
- 1 packet cake jelly glaze (or cherry gelatin)
- 100 g sugar
- 200 ml boiling water
How to cook cottage cheese cake with cherries
Beat the eggs thoroughly with a mixer for at least 5–7 minutes, gradually adding the sugar and vanilla sugar, until the mixture is very light and fluffy.
Line the bottom of a springform pan with a sheet of parchment paper and lock the ring in place (I use a 22 cm pan). Spread the batter evenly with a spatula. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C (350°F) for approximately 20–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Prepare the cherries. Dissolve 100 g of sugar in 200 ml of boiling water, stirring well. Pour the hot syrup over the frozen cherries and let them thaw completely in the syrup, about 2–3 hours. You can do this the night before and leave them overnight (in that case, refrigerate them).
Make the cottage cheese filling. Soak the gelatin in 100 ml of water and let it bloom for 10 minutes (or as directed on the package). Then heat the gelatin until fully dissolved — do not let it boil. Let it cool completely. Combine the cottage cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla sugar in a single bowl.
Beat everything together thoroughly until completely smooth. The mixture should be perfectly uniform, with no lumps of cottage cheese or grains of sugar.
Peel the sponge off the parchment, place it in the pan porous side up. It's a good idea to lay a fresh sheet of parchment under the sponge — this makes it much easier to transfer the finished cake. Generously soak the sponge with 5–6 tablespoons of the cherry syrup from the bowl of cherries.
Pour the entire cottage cheese mixture over the sponge and refrigerate for 3–4 hours, until fully set.
Prepare the cake jelly glaze according to the package instructions. I mixed mine with equal parts water and the cherry syrup left over from thawing the cherries, instead of plain water. If you are using regular cherry gelatin, it's better to dissolve it in plain water as directed (since it already contains enough sugar). Pour the prepared jelly over the cherries.
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