Cherry Cake

Cherry Cake. A moist pound cake based upon a favourite Christmas tradition but using fresh sweet cherries instead of glacé fruit. Make it with frozen cherries too!

Here’s another recipe that’s been on my to-do list for a long time. You may be familiar with our traditional Newfoundland Cherry Cake, which we always make for the Holiday season. The idea here is to take that same recipe and use fresh cherries instead of the preserved glacé cherries which are always used at Christmas. 

You can find that Newfoundland Cherry Cake recipe and other seasonal favourites in our Christmas Cakes Collection!

A fresh alternative to glacé cherries.

Every year during the Holidays I get the same question from readers who are not fond of glacé cherries, light fruitcake or dried fruit in general: “Can I make this with fresh cherries instead?” I’d never tried it but didn’t see a reason why not, so I generally said, “give it a try”.

A few people reported back that the cake was absolutely delicious. With some very good fresh cherries available right now, I felt the time was ideal to give it a try. After cleaning the dark purplish juice from my stained hands from pitting the ripe cherries, I was ready to begin.

A few tips for using fresh cherries.

I cut the cherries in quarters to make sure they were a little lighter and would not sink entirely to the bottom. The traditional trick of dusting them with some of the flour from the cake was also employed as insurance too.

One of the things that makes the traditional Christmas Cherry Cake so good is that it includes pure almond extract in the batter. Almond and cherries are a naturally complimentary flavour duo and it works incredibly well here too.

For one of my favourite cookie bars recipes featuring the all natural flavours of cherries and almonds, be sure to check out these Cherry Almond Squares.

There is an additional fragrant, complimentary flavour burst from vanilla here too, which balances nicely. Good vanilla extract is perfectly fine, but on this occasion I had purchased a fresh bottle of vanilla bean paste and used that instead. It provided a very tasty result.

The cake baked up well in my favourite bundt pan but a tube pan or even two loaf pans would work just as well. Different sized pans will result in different baking time. Just watch it and let the toothpick test be your guide to when your cake is perfectly baked.

The cake turned out so well, I’ll be making it for our next family BBQ too, while great summer cherries are still available. I often use frozen cherries in the winter time, so I wouldn’t hesitate to use those either at any time of year…and dare I say it…maybe a new twist on your traditional cherry cake for Christmas!

Looking for more great cherry recipes?

You’ll find hundreds of other sweet ideas in our Cakes & Pies Category and even more in our Desserts Category.

Be sure to check out our collection of Best Cherry Recipes:

Updated June 2020

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