Cherry Almond Cake
Updated October 06, 2020
Last week we had our friends over for dinner. Josh made Grilled Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin and I was in charge of dessert. I love being in charge, especially when dessert is involved:) I was tempted to bake cookies because you can never go wrong with cookies, but I decided to mix things up. We bought a big bag of cherries from the market so I made a Cherry Almond Cake.
I love fresh cherries, minus the pits. You would think with all of the cooking and baking we do we would own a cherry pitter. Nope! I think it is the one gadget we don’t have. So my hands got nice and red while making this cake. Oh well, it was worth it, but buying a cherry pitter is on my to do list:)
The buttermilk cake is tender with juicy cherries and an almond streusel topping. I also added an almond glaze and toasted almonds to finish off the cake. The cake is pretty to serve and delicious to eat. I was very pleased with my cake and so were our guests.
This Cherry Almond Cake makes a great dessert, but I can also see myself serving and eating it for breakfast or brunch. Cake in the morning is always a good idea:) Go find some fresh cherries…and a cherry pitter and make this Cherry Almond Cake.
Cherry Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries stemmed, pitted and halved
To make the Almond Streusel Topping:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup almond paste crumbled
- 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
- Pinch of salt
To make the Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan or pie plate. Set aside.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in egg, buttermilk, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix until combined.
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Arrange cherries on top of batter.
- To make the almond streusel topping-in a small bowl combine flour, brown sugar, almond paste, butter, and salt. Mix together with your fingers until crumbly. Top the cake with streusel topping.
- Bake cake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 50-55 minutes. Let cool in pan. T
- While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, almond extract, and just enough of the milk to make a pourable glaze. Drizzle over the cake and garnish with toasted almond slices, if using.
- Cut the cake and serve.
- Note-the cake will keep up to 2 days, stored in an air-tight container on the counter.
Have you tried this recipe?
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This is such a gorgeous cake! I don’t do nearly enough baking with cherries; I need to change that!
This is the perfect cake for sitting on the patio after a long summer day. Excellent!!
I love pretty much any dessert with cherries, particularly if it is cake. And I never mind pitting cherries without a pitter; it’s part of the fun of the baking process.
Beautiful! I love cherries and almonds together. This looks like such a comfort cake.
Almond and cherry is a perfect combo. Add some almonds and it is perfect. Can’t wait to make this. It’s pinned.
I just made this cake. I thought that the cake came out awesome and then I made the glaze and I tasted it before I put it on and I thought in my head…oooo this is way tooooooo sweet… But I put it on anyway. I tasted the cake glaze and all and I have to say… IT WAS PERFECTION.!!!! Not too sweet and very very tasty… I also pitted the cherries like the video you provided… using an old bottle and a chopstick… I did not have a chopstick,but I did have a wooden skewer for kabobs. It worked very well.. Thank you… I am going to make this one again definitely
I love cherries but like most hate that whole pitting part so I did buy a cherry pitter a couple of years ago and it does make quicker work of getting them done. A friend was recently when I was making something with cherries and wanted to help me pit 3 pounds of them so we needed more than one. We did a MacGyver. One soda bottle and one chopstick later and we each had our own! I actually loved that the bottle collected the pits but the downfall is we lost a couple of cherries to that netherworld down below.
Lovely cake; love the simplicity.
Oh my goodness, so decadent, I love this. Since having my son two weeks ago, I’ve been on a huge cherry kick. Perhaps it’s a subconscious yen to pass along the melatonin in cherries to my little infant. But whatever it is, I need to make this. Or at the very least, get someone to make it for me!!
Maria, this cake is SO good! I had a bag of lovely fresh cherries and was looking for a way to use them. I love cherries and almonds together, so this cake was calling my name. I didn’t have almond paste, but I found a recipe online and easily made a small batch. The combination of the moist cake, the cherries, the almond-flavored streusel, and the almond glaze was just so incredibly delicious. I’m filing this recipe away and will no doubt make it every year when cherries are in season. Thanks so much for sharing!
Oh, I think this will replace the almond paste cake I’ve been making for Ramadan this year! Thanks!
This is such a pretty cake Maria!
I just posted my version of the cake on my blog. It is one of my new favorite treats! It would mean so much to me if you’d please take a look 🙂 Here’s the link: http://piesandplots.net/cherry-almond-cake/ Thanks for such a great recipe!
Just checking…do you use sweet cherries or sour cherries?
Any fresh cherries will work! Enjoy!
Just wondering if (unsweetened) canned & pitted tart cherries could work? Maybe save some of the juice to add in — might alter the color of the cake, but might still taste good. Would appreciate feedback.
I haven’t tried canned cherries, but they would probably work. I would drain them so there isn’t too much liquid. You don’t want the cake to be soggy.
I just made this cake today, it was awesome, it has such a great flavour and tender crumb, I used frozen organic cherries from Costco, I let them defrost and drain overnight in a sieve, I also doubled the recipe to bake in a 9×13 pan as we were having a BBQ, it baked for 70 minutes.
Glad you liked the cake!
glad to hear frozen and doubling work!
i would really love to bake this amazing cake, but we’re out of cherries this season . so could you please suggest any other fruit rather than cherries
My Gold Medal flour was recalled, I used King Arthur flour. Came out great!
I heard that if you don’t have a cherry litter you can use a drinking straw. Sounds a good idea to me but I haven’t yet tried it.
I made this cake exactly as written and it was the most delicious cake I think I’ve ever made !! I have already decided that I will make another one just as soon as this one is finished …and that will be tomorrow !! It lasted two days in my house and I live here with my husband and my Dad and we are fighting over the last piece. Thank you soooooo much for sharing this recipe – it is definitely a keeper !!
Glad you liked the cake!
I have been making this cake since 2P&P came out with the recipe. I had a friend who asked me for it and when I went to the website to email it to her, I decided to leave a comment. It is beyond fantastic. It never lasts long in my home and when I take it somewhere, people always rave about it.
I have now made this cake, oh, maybe 6 times in the last 2 months. It has become the go to cake lately. Anyway when I made it this time the cake came up over and swallowing the crumb??? DID NOTHING DIFFERENT!
HELP!!!
Ok! My Almond Cherry cake came out looking like the Peach Almond cake? Pie? Why
Did you use cherries?
I’m curious. Can you use a toothpick to check for doneness? Im anxious to make the cake but dont want to overbake it. Thank you!
Yes!
Can I use frozen cherries?
My husband loved this recipe. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it is more cake like than danish like.
Does tart cherries work in this recipe?
I haven’t tried them, but that sounds good to me!