Reader Recipe: Cherry La

CAKER WORLD PREMIERE!

When it comes to blog commenters, I have some of the finest. Seriously. You’re all awesome. Hearing from fellow cakers puts the “Hello!” into my dolly. Wait, that sounds weird.

Recently, Sara from Wisconsin commented on my Cherry Loaf recipe, confessing that she’d been having dreams about maraschino cherries. (I have them, too, but usually Captain Stubing is involved.) Sara said that there’s a road sign on the way to her sister’s place that reads “Cherry La.” She always thought it sounded like a fabulous dessert. So I said, “Go forth, caker woman, and invent it.”

So she did. And here it is! I've yet to make Sara’s Cherry La, but it reminds me of a snow cone – only without the syrup running down your arm. But a word of caution: you’ll need a zester and strong wrists to scrape the ice. (Two strikes for me.) Sara, I’m going to spread the news about Cherry La throughout all of Canada. Only in Quebec, it’ll be called Le Cherry La. Or La Cherry La. Something like that. I’ve always been le bad at French.

Thanks, Sara!

If you’ve got a caker recipe (original or not), email it to me cakercooking at gmail dot com and I’ll do my darndest to feature it.

And don't forget to come back Monday for the first-ever Pieathalon!

¼ cup maraschino cherry juice
¼ cup lemon juice (about ½ a lemon)
2 tsp. lemon zest
2 cups water
¼ cup sugar
¼ - ½ cup chopped maraschino cherries

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Pour mixture in a heat proof/freezer proof pan (I used a metal 9x9 cake pan). Let cool until room temperature.  Then put in freezer, making sure it’s a level spot.  Freeze for about 2 hours.  Once frozen, use a fork and scrape the surface.  Enjoy!

Sara’s note 1:  You may have to rearrange all of your French bread pizzas and unlabelled Tupperware for a level spot in your freezer.

Sara’s note 2:  Don’t use a cheap fork to scrape up the Cherry La or you’ll end up with yet another piece of silverware for your wind chime project.

Source: Caker Sara