Vanessa says: “Bring on the cherries for sweet cake and sweet dreams.

Cherries are a great source of the phytochemicals anthocyanins, which give them their rich red colour. They are also a source of tryptophan, which helps to make serotonin. This in turn makes melatonin, the sleep hormone, which is released from the brain in the evenings to send us off to sleep.”

Makes 1 30cm bake

Ingredients

100g organic stoneground wholegrain flour (11.5% protein)
75g plain flour
3 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
175g sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
2 tablespoons dried rose petals
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
175g bubbly, lively second-build starter (page 12)
100g fresh cherries, halved and stoned
2 tablespoons (20–25g) flaked almonds

For the second-build starter

30g starter

60g water at 16–18°C
100g organic stoneground
wholegrain flour

Method

Mix

Put all the ingredients except the cherries and almonds into a large mixing bowl and combine to form a loose batter – it might seem too wet, but don’t worry. After you remove the starter to use in the dough, refresh the remaining starter in your jar and put to one side.

Prove

Grease a 30cm, 3cm deep flan tin and line with baking parchment. Pour the batter into the tin, then leave somewhere warm (about 28–30°C) to prove overnight – perhaps in an airing cupboard or in the oven with just the light on. (The batter needs this warmth to prove because the oil, sugar and eggs have an osmotic effect on the yeast.)

Bake

The next morning, preheat your oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Scatter the cherries and almonds over the top of the cake and bake for about 20–25 minutes until the sponge is tender, golden and light and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

By now, your starter should be ready to put in the fridge until you next want to prepare it for baking.

The bake will keep for a few days. I usually slice it, then wrap each slice in greaseproof paper and store in a tin.

Tip

It’s important to note that the flour, eggs, oil and caster sugar all need to be at room temperature before you mix this batter.

Second-build starter

Vanessa says: “Your starter needs to be at peak activity for successful baking. If you aren’t baking every day, you will need to build your starter before you bake. This is a two-stage process, known as a double refreshment, which will leave you with a second-build starter.”

Day 1 8pm (first build)

Place your 30g starter in a clean jar with the water and whisk together well – this will oxygenate the water. Add the flour and stir vigorously to combine the ingredients. Cover the jar with a lid, keeping it loose so that the gases produced during fermentation can escape. Leave the jar on the kitchen work surface at an ambient temperature of 20–22°C.

Day 2 8am (second build)

Take 30g of your starter and refresh it again following the instructions for the first build. Leave the jar for a further 12 hours before baking. This process builds up the microbes in your starter so that it is ready for baking.

Discard

Because I bake every day here at the School, I don’t need to discard often, because my starter doesn’t need rebuilding. The instructions in this book are for people who bake once or twice a week, so your starter will need rebuilding when you take it out of the fridge, especially if you have not used it for a long time. This is a ‘belt and braces’ approach.

I know many people feel uncomfortable about discarding surplus starter each time they refresh, but it’s a process that is often misunderstood. In my experience, keeping slightly more starter in your jar (about 200g) cultivates a more active starter.

However, the conundrum is that this means you will have surplus, and you will need to discard some starter in order to control the acidity – and therefore the activity – of the yeast.

When you are storing starter, it is good to have a larger amount in the jar. The hooch (vinegary liquid) that forms on top will deter pathogens, and the starter will stay healthy.

However, when you are ready to bake, you will need to shift your starter into leavening mode. This means it needs to be activated, and you need to lower the acidity in order to build up the yeasts so that the starter will be able to raise the bread. The easiest way to do this is to reduce the amount of starter that is refreshed by discarding some of it, so that the yeasts grow faster than the bacteria. Once you understand this, the refreshment process makes more sense.

Discarding starter doesn’t necessarily mean throwing it away. Leftover starter can be used in other recipes. You can also put it to great use on the compost heap. Either way, there is no need to ‘waste’ your discarded starter.

Thought sourdough was just for bread? These irresistible cake recipes prove otherwise