Apple and cherry pie .... what memories! When I was a kid I used to spend summers with my grandparents in Slovenia, where my grandmother used to make me find this fabulous cake for tea! It is easy to prepare and tastes of fresh fruit. Just what we needed during a hot summer! Have you noticed that at this time of year, in markets and supermarkets, as well as on street corners, it's easy to find baskets full of delicious red cherries for just a few euros a kilo? How can you resist? Just yesterday I came across one of these baskets overflowing with cherries and I took home a good kilo of fruit, full of excitement about the cake I’m going to describe to you today. Making it together with my grandmother Fani was even more exciting: we relived all those memories and, while waiting for the cake to finish cooking, we laughed and joked together just like the old days. Those memories will always be with me, as well as the unique flavour and aroma of this cake which will always be really special.

Stone the cherries and, with 3 tablespoons of sugar, cook them in a saucepan over a low heat. With an electric hand whisk, beat the sugar with the softened butter. Add in sequence the lemon zest, rum, baking powder, eggs and vanilla sugar. Now, a tablespoon at a time, add the flour to the mixture. Peel an apple and cut it into cubes, then add it to the cake mixture. In a buttered cake tin, spread out a layer of the batter with a spoon and cover with half the cherries. Now make a second layer of dough and cover again with cherries. Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes and your apple and cherry cake will be ready!