The obsession with small desserts and many many cherries is baaaack! This time, topped with a crunchy brown sugar oat streusel, because we can. The cakes are quick to make, eggless, tender, buttery. Fresh cherries are spooned on top of each one, plenty of streusel is sprinkled on. The whole thing smells like a party in the oven. And we should really join in.

If you’re following me on Instagram, you know my first attempt at these was a mega fail after this point. In trying to make my favourite butter cake eggless, I used too much leavener and added soured milk to replicate the lightness and moisture that eggs give. Big mistake. The cakes exploded out of the little muffin moulds, and the acid in the lemon juice reacted with the baking powder causing a discolouration of the fruit. It was all very, very not pretty.

So then, I decided to use less leavener, plain milk instead of buttermilk, and fill the moulds a little lesser to make 6 small, but respectably risen cakes. It worked worked worked worked worked.

The streusel is super simple: flour, cold butter, brown sugar and oats for a little texture and you know, health and stuff.

Once you have the butter softened, the batter is a 5-minute affair and that’s not even the best part. The best part is biting into a sweet, crunchy streusel along with those juicy cherries and a soft, soft cake. So much texture, so much flavour!

Mini Cherry Streusel Cakes (Eggless)

Simple, eggless, buttery cakes topped with fresh cherries and brown sugar streusel!

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 20

Total Time: 50

Makes: 6 mini cakes

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Ingredients

For the streusel
2 tbsps all-purpose flour
1 tbsp oats
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp cold butter
For the cake
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt if using unsalted butter
1/4 cup butter at room temp (55 gms)
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup halved and pitted cherries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175 C and line 6 muffin moulds with cupcake liners, or grease them very well. The liners are preferred because the cherries might stick to the pan.
I like to get the streusel out of the way first, so that the last thing to do is quickly add the cold butter and sprinkle it on just before the cakes go into the oven. So in a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar and oats. Set aside till later.
To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder and salt, if using. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy, then pour in the milk and beat again. Gently fold in the flour mixture.
Divde the batter into the 6 moulds. It will look like there's hardly any batter, but they will rise, don't worry.
Spoon the halved and pitted cherries on top of the cakes.
Quickly rub the cold butter into the streusel mixture you made earlier, till you have something that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Sprinkle it onto each of the cakes. Be generous!
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes have risen, the streusel is golden-brown and a toothpick poked in the center of each comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the muffin moulds. Enjoy!