Cherry Almond Cake

My choice for this month's Cake Slice Bakers challenger is the Cherry Almond Cake from the The Cake Book: Beautiful Sweet Treats for Every Craving.

This cake is made in a loaf pan (9x5") and the final result is a tender, lightly sweet, lightly almond-flavored cake drizzled with an almond glaze.

Stir this one together in a big bowl, pour it in the pan and bake for about an hour.  Pretty easy and pretty tasty.

I made this cake twice - the first time with fresh cherries (as the original recipe calls for) and then a second time using halved maraschino cherries.  I recommend going the maraschino cherry way.

The fresh cherries, even though I patted them dry as completely as possible, turned the cake a strange greenish color. It wasn't very pleasant. I'm sure there's a trick to it, but it didn't work for me.

I also changed the procedure for adding the cherries - instead of stirring them in, I sprinkled them in two different layers. That worked great and spread the cherries evenly throughout the cake

Another change to the original recipe was the amount of sugar/almond soak called for. I halved that and even then didn't use it all. The first attempt used the ¼ cup sugar and water called for and it made the cake extremely wet and after a day, soggy.

Go ahead and use all of the glaze. The cake is only lightly sweet and the almond glaze and sliced almonds add a nice, smooth, and sweet finish to a bite of the cake.

I really liked this Cherry Almond Cake. The texture is tender and great, and the almond flavor is wonderful. The changes that were made from the original recipe are noted at the bottom of the recipe.

Update:  This cake gets better every day!

Be sure and visit the other Cake Slice Bakers' selections (listed below the recipe). I can't wait for next month's selection - it's a summer time winner!

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Cherry Almond Cake

Yield: 10

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Tender, lightly sweet cake with a nice almond glaze.

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Ingredients

• For the Cake:
• 1 ½ cups (246g) maraschino cherries, halved
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar)
• ⅔ cup (149g) canola oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon (4g) almond extract
• 2 ¼ cups (304g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (6g) sea salt
• 1 cup (224g) water, room temperature
• For the Almond Soak:
• 1 tablespoon (14g) boiling water
• 1 tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
• ¼ (1g) teaspoon almond extract
• For the Glaze:
• ¾ cups powdered sugar (65g), sifted
• 3 tablespoons (45g) half-and-half or whole milk
• ⅛ teaspoon (.5g) almond extract
• ⅛ teaspoon (.5g) vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (14g) almond slices for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9x5" (23x13cm) loaf pan and line with parchment paper or aluminum foil, letting the excess hang off the ends so you can lift out the cake easily.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, and almond extract until thick and lightened in color, 1-2 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Alternate adding the flour and water into the sugar mixture, starting with the flour, then water and repeat, ending with the flour. Mix until just blended.
3. Pour ⅓rd of the batter into the loaf pan, then sprinkle half of the halved cherries evenly on top of the batter. Pour another ⅓rd of the batter over those cherries, then sprinkle the remaining cherries on the batter. Finish with the final third of the batter. Tap the pan on a counter to let excess bubbles out.
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 55 to 60 minutes, until puffed up and lightly browned. Test with a toothpick for moist, but not wet toothpick. Let the pan sit for ten minutes in the pan before lifting it out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack. (Place the parchment or aluminum foil that was in the pan, underneath the rack to catch the soak and glaze later.)
5. Whisk together the boiling water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Let it sit and cool while the cake is cooling. After cooled, stir in the almond extract.
6. Brush the cooled sugar water over the top and sides of the cooled cake and give it a few minutes to absorb while you make the glaze.
7. To make the glaze - in a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, almond and vanilla extracts until you have a very thick, smooth glaze. Drizzle or pour evenly over the top of the cake, then finish off with the sliced almonds.
8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Notes

The original recipe called for 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cherries, mixing in 1 ½ tablespoon sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Stir those together and let sit while you make the cake.

The original recipe also called for sunflower or grapeseed oil and I used canola. The original soak consisted of ¼ cup boiling water, ¼ cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon almond extract. I thought this was a little much and it made the cake pretty soggy.

The original recipe called for heavy cream in the glaze - I lightened it up and used half-and-half. I also added a little vanilla to the glaze.

One thing I also did later was put ¾ths of the glaze over the cake, sprinkled on the almonds, then poured the rest over. It gave the almonds a nice glazed crunch. Very tasty!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 184Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 81mgCarbohydrates: 35gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 5g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The Cake Book: Beautiful Sweet Treats for Every Craving by Rebecca Firth. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

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