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Guest Post: Hungarian Cherry Squares and Hidden Gardens and Private Spaces in Cabbagetown

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Serves: Makes one 9″x13″ pan, about 20 squares
Cost: ~€3.80
Preparation time: ~40 minutes
Calories: ~120 per square

Kicking off my guest posts is the wonderful Eva, from KitchenInspirations. Blogging from Canada she posts a wonderful selection of recipes and restaurant reviews, and always succeeds in making me so jealous when she posts pictures from her wonderful cabin. I’ve known Eva since almost as long as I’ve been blogging. I think I first discovered her blog when she’d just posted a wonderful cauliflower and celeriac mash recipe and I’ve been drawn back ever since by her stories and photos. She made a wonderful series of posts last year when she went on vacation to Morocco – posting almost every day with a summary and photos of her exciting trip. That’s what I call dedication!

I’m sure many of my regular readers will know of Eva already. If you don’t then I urge you to go and check out her wonderful blog – you won’t be disappointed! It’s an honour to have her here, guest-posting for me in my absence and she’s spared no effort – she’s even posted some photos from a recent trip she took to an area of Toronto called “Cabbagetown”. It’s a wonderful post and I’m so grateful to her for taking the time to write this up for me – thank you Eva! There’ll be a new guest post in a few days, but in the meantime, I’ll leave you in Eva’s capable hands! Enjoy her post!

Find Eva on: KitchenInspirations | Twitter

~~~

I am rather thrilled and honoured that my good friend Charles has kindly asked me to guest post. Charles has been a valued commenter on my blog for over a year now, and as most of you know, he takes his time to formulate interesting and thoughtful remarks; his comments are a joy to read and sometimes even have a bit of a chuckle over. Thank you Charles, your friendship is cherished, I hope to do your guest post right.

In keeping Charles’ tradition of a little peek into living in Paris, I will give you a little peek into living in Toronto and a lovely Hungarian family recipe. I belabored over which recipe I would share as Charles’ guest post, because he takes so much time to photograph and document his recipes so well; I didn’t want to get ahead of myself and bite off more than I can chew (pardon the pun) so I hope you enjoy it. This recipe is a cherished favourite for my family (my brother always asks for it when I visit and now that my dear Mom is gone, it is up to me to carry on the tradition).

But first, A little adventure in Cabbagetown:

Hidden Gardens and Private Spaces

In early June, JT and I had the opportunity to visit Cabbagetown again, but this time for their Hidden Gardens & Private Space Tour. We were enchanted by the Victorian Architecture on our last tour and were equally intrigued by the Garden Tour. The cost was $15 Canadian which is about 12 Euros (all proceeds went toward various Cabbagetown Preservation Association projects). We received a bottle of water and some organic fertilizer mix as a thank you. There were eleven gardens in the tour and it took us about two and half hours to complete it. We walked the entire time, which provided good exercise because upon completion we stopped at an old favourite restaurant for lunch.

What surprised me the most of this tour was how small these gardens actually were, but I guess I should have known better, after all they are city homes and most of them were Victorian, so the gardens are narrow and not very deep. Many of them only large enough for a table and chairs, some had a little patch of grass, but they were mostly hard-scaped with lots and lots of foliage. I hope you enjoy the little tour and some of the photos (many of the places were so small, we couldn’t get a good shot!)

Hidden gems

The trick is to have something surprising and interesting to look at in hidden places

A lovely covered porch

A lovely covered porch for those surprise summer rainstorms

Interesting paving

Interesting paving make the space feel bigger than it really is

Raised gardens make it easier to weed

Raised gardens make it easier to weed

A lovely little spot to sit

A lovely little spot to sit

There was only space enough for a table and chairs

There was only space enough for a table and chairs

Another little secret place to sit

Another little secret place to sit

A nice little conversation area

A nice little conversation area

My favourite seating area

This was my favourite seating area. I just love outdoor sofa sets

Gorgeous Flowers

Gorgeous flowers considering there isn’t much sunshine to these little gardens

And now for the cherished recipe.

Cherry Squares

By Éva Hársfai-Robinson (my dear Mom 1936-2005)

Ingredients

Hungarian Cherry Squares ingredients

  • 1 jar pitted cherries 500 mL to 700 mL, drained but reserve liquid
  • 3 eggs separated
  • 120 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 125 g caster sugar
  • 250 g flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • About ½ cup milk – or use reserved cherry liquid

Instructions

  1. Grease and flour 9” x 13” x 2” baking pan (22cm x 33cm x 5cm).
  2. Preheat oven to 350° F (175°C)
  3. Drain cherries, liquid reserved (you can use this as your liquid or make a delicious sauce or use it in soda as flavouring!)
  4. Whip egg whites until a stiff but not dry (should be able to stand in a peak) – no need to wash the beater if you do it in this order, if you cream the yolks first, then you must wash the beater and dry thoroughly).
  5. Cream egg yolks with butter and sugar until light and fluffy (should be a lighter shade of yellow).
    Creaming the butter, sugar and eggs together takes patience
  6. Sift flour, baking powder and salt – dry ingredients.
  7. Alternating dry ingredients with the milk (or reserved cherry liquid), fold into egg yolk mixture.
  8. Fold beaten egg whites into the mixture.
  9. Pour into greased pan. Note the dough should be quite thick, should have to spread it into the cake pan, it should not pour by it self.
  10. Dot with cherries throughout (you may want to give each cherry a squeeze as you dot so ensure there are no pits!).
    I start out lining up all the cherries, but then I have to fill in the spaces so I can use up the whole jar!
  11. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 to 30 minutes (test with toothpick to make sure it’s done).
  12. Cool in pan (don’t cut until it is entirely cool otherwise it will become ‘bacony’ or szalonás, as the Hungarians put it).
    Hungarian Cherry Squares
A short note: This was my very first guest post ever, and I am delighted that it was for Charles’ Blog. I have a new found respect for Charles’ blogging, over and above my original respect, which was plenty! The extra effort Charles puts into this blog is unparalleled, the ingredient shot, the video, the working shots etc., make this blog ever so wonderful to follow but impossible to follow in its footsteps!

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb says

    Hey u two!

    I love cherry squares! My aunty would always make some for us in the summer vacations. They are quite nice with some coffee or tea in the afternoon but I like them too with a fresh lemonade when its hot. In summer we would help with the fields, picking up the extra hay. Those were awesome days! you just reminded me of that time. =)

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Hi Helen, so glad that we were able to bring out such a lovely memory for you; the cherry squares were a very big hit at the pool party I went to.

      Reply

  2. Eva says

    Thank you so much for your lovely words, Charles. Time does fly when you’re having fun! It’s been an honour to guest post for you, and my first! Thank you indeed.

    Reply

    • Charles says

      Thank *you* for the delightful guest post Eva. I’ve always loved cherries – used to raid the jars of them my mother had in her baking cupboard :D! Definitely going to give these a try. By the way, I’m curious… not knowing anything at all about Hungarian pronunciation, how does one pronounce “Hársfai” in your dear mum’s name?

      Thanks again 🙂

      Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Thanks Greg. I took them to a pool party and they disappeared very quickly. Hungarians are not sweet dessert lovers, so many of our desserts are just lightly sweetened.

      Reply

  5. Kristy says

    These look great Eva. And I love that you’re carrying on your mom’s tradition. Congrats on your first guest post – wonderful choice Charles! 🙂 I also just love the garden shots.I would happily live in Toronto!

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Thank you kindly Kristy. The cherry squares are a huge favourite, I simply could not Not carry it on!
      I have to agree with you, Toronto is an amazing city to live in.

      Reply

  6. ChgoJohn says

    I bet these are devoured quickly. They look like tasty bites and they must lure people to the serving tray.
    For you first guest post, you did great, Eva. Well done!

    Reply

  7. Linda says

    My father loved cherry desserts, he would have been thrilled to see this recipe…or for me to bake it for him! Love the little garden tour, I have a tiny area that I’m planning to landscape to the best use of size. I picked up a few great ideas here!! Great guest post!!

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Thank you kindly Linda, the cherry squares are not too sweet so you don’t mind eating a couple of little squares! I’m glad my little tour gave you some great ideas for your small space. Any outdoor space, be it small or large is wonderful to have in the summer-time.

      Reply

  9. Sissi says

    Great guest post, Eva. Thank you for sharing your mother’s wonderful recipe. You might not believe me but it looks very similar to my mum’s most frequent fruit cake. Sour cherry is the love of my life. Only sophisticated palates can appreciate it, so I’m very pleased we share the taste for it.
    The gardens visit sounds amazing. Very original.

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Thank you kindly Sissi, this is definitely a delicate but not too sweet dessert. I hope you post your mothers fruit cake recipe I’d love to try it to compare.

      Reply

  10. A_Boleyn says

    Welcome, Eva. Thank you for a newsy post pre-recipe. Being ‘mobility challenged’ these days, I’m happy to take a sit-down tour of the various gardens and just enjoy your photographs. 🙂

    And I really enjoyed seeing each individually placed cherry studding the baking dish in your treasured family recipe. Thank you for sharing on Charles’ blog while he’s away.

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Thank you kindly Maria, I am very glad to have been able to share such a beloved recipe; I was quite surprised that I hadn’t posted it yet in the 6 years I’ve been blogging. But at least I had a good one for the guest post.
      I’m very glad you were able to enjoy the garden tour, it was a lot of walking and we were quite tired by the end of it. Lunch was a welcome break.

      Reply

  11. Barbara Bamber | justasmidgen says

    I also love Charles blog.. and his recipes! Yours looks heavenly, Eva! I love those gardens.. they looked like something from a magazine! Your pretty dessert.. do you think you could use fresh, pitted cherries.. or would they not cook up enough?? xx Smidge

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Hi Barbara, thank you kindly for your lovely words. Yes, absolutely, fresh pitted cherries would be just fine. I just made Sissi’s Financier cakes and used fresh cherries and they baked up perfectly fine.

      Reply

  12. shuhan says

    Hello Eva! The cherry squares look delicious! I esp love that the recipe came from your mum, and that we got a private tour of your beautiful garden too (:

    Reply

  15. Liz says

    Eva, you outdid yourself with this delectable family recipe…I can see why you cherish it so. Between the wonderful memories and the great taste, I’m sure it will not be forgotten. And thanks for taking us along on the garden tours…so lovely!

    Charles, I hope you’re off doing something fun! You’ve left us in capable hands with Eva 🙂

    Reply

  16. Sawsan (Chef in disguise) says

    Hello Eva and Charles 🙂
    It is a pleasure to see two wonderful bloggers working together
    Eva, you did a wonderful job on your guest post but that is no surprise you put in so much love and effort into all your posts
    The cherry squares look like an amazing recipe, made extra special by the fact that it is your mum’s recipe!

    Reply

  17. Eva says

    Your kind flattering words mean a lot to me Sawsan, thank you. I am glad I was able to share a family favourite on Charles’ blog.

    Reply

  25. Barb @ Profiteroles & Ponytails says

    I enjoyed learning a little more about my hometown Eva. Charles always put so much effort into his posts and you certainly didn’t disappoint. Great post and so nice to see that you’ve shared one of your mom’s recipes. She was a wonderful cook, and certainly a woman ahead of her time!

    Reply

  27. Kelly @ Inspired Edibles says

    These chewy cherry squares look delightful Eva! What a thrill to see a spread on Cabbagetown… I have so many fond memories of that beautiful part of Toronto. In fact, I used to take my then 1 + 1/2 year old son to the farm on the edge of Cabbagetown (bordering the Don Valley) – we would spend glorious afternoons there together with the animals… sigh… where does the time go? Thank you for the memories!:)

    Reply

    • Eva Taylor says

      Glad you enjoyed the little garden tour, Kelly; that little zoo (I think it’s called Riverdale) still exists today, but just by a hair…they keep threatening to close it down.

      Reply

  31. Nami | Just One Cookbook says

    Hi Eva! Your cherry squares are beautiful! This year I went cherry picking and had lots of cherries. I need to save this recipe for the next year so that I can use fresh delicious cherry for this. My clafoutis was rather softer and hard to bring it to go, but these squares are perfect for breakfast or snack on the go!

    Reply

  34. Tanja| Cooking Corner says

    Hi Eva, your cherry squares make my mouth water, these remind me of my grandmother’s cherry cake, love them!! Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos of Cabbagetown’ gardens, I trully enjoyed this wonderful post!

    Reply

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