Cherry Swirl Cake with Curd Cheese and Poppy Seeds
·Make the dough
Mix the flour with the sugar and yeast. Add the melted margarine combined with the milk and rum. Knead by hand, or ideally in a stand mixer, until you get a smooth, non-sticky dough. Leave it to rise in a warm place for an hour.
Pit the cherries
While the dough is rising, pit the cherries and prepare the poppy seed filling. It's very simple: mix the poppy seeds with the sugar and pour over some lukewarm milk. Add the curd cheese and stir together to make the filling.
Roll out the dough and spread with the filling
Roll out the risen dough into a square, roughly 50 x 50 cm. Spread the poppy seed filling evenly over the whole surface, then scatter the cherries on top.
Roll up and slice
Roll the dough up tightly into a log. Cut into slices about five centimetres thick (or according to the height of your baking tin).
Bake
Grease a tall round cake tin, about 30 cm in diameter, and dust it with fine plain flour. Arrange the dough swirls in the tin side by side. Let them rise for another twenty minutes. Bake in an oven preheated to 190°C for 45 minutes.
Lemon glaze
Mix icing sugar with lemon juice. Once the cake is baked, drizzle it all over with the lemon glaze. Cut into slices to serve.
