Amarena cherry and blueberry torte with caramelised figs

by Leah Halmagyi

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup Greek yoghurt
  • 3 cups caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1½ cups plain flour
  • ¾ cup almond meal
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup canola oil
  • ½ cup Amarena cherries, chopped
  • 1 cup sherry
  • 4 punnets blueberries
  • 6 figs

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine the yoghurt, 1 ½ cups caster sugar, eggs, flour, almond meal, baking powder, almond essence, vanilla extract and oil in a bowl an beat until smooth. Fold in the cherries. Spoon into a lined 22cm cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly.
2 Meanwhile, mix 1 punnet blueberries with the sherry and 1 cup caster sugar in a small saucepan and boil rapidly for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve. Brush onto the warm cake, then allow to cool completely before turning out.
3 Top with the remaining blueberries. Halve the figs, scatter with the remaining sugar then caramelise with a blowtorch.