Cherry Cake with Cherry Icing

As I’ve often mentioned, I like to experiment and develop recipes and this one was born from just not being in the mood to make pie. I had purchased the jarred sour cherries in syrup with that intention, but just didn’t wanna. Ever get that feeling? So each time I opened the pantry door, there the jars would stand accusingly saying Pie Pie! and I just was like – No! This went on for awhile till I realized that I could ignore their command and use just the one jar (you need two jars for pie and I make my own filling, don’t care for the gloppy canned stuff) and make a cake instead. By golly, that really appealed to me. So I served this to my mom and DH and they surprised me by both LOVING the cake. I usually get a restrained yeah, pretty good (they’re a tough crowd to test taste on) but they actually both asked for seconds. And then I caught DH going for thirds later on. Suffice it to say that it was prepared for Shabbat and by Monday there wasn’t a crumb left. So this has become a new cake on the roster and I will tell you that the cherry juice and almond extract are truly awesome together.

So gather your ingredients and get started!

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Take a bundt or tube pan and grease and flour it and set aside.

Take the jar of cherries and drain them in a colander over a bowl to catch the juices. You will reserve a cup of juice for the cake and two tablespoons for the icing. Set aside.

Toss the cherries with the flour and set aside.

Take a large bowl or a mixing bowl for your mixer (either by hand or by mixer, easy peasy) and place the flour, baking powder, salt and regular sugar in together and mix well.

Right in the bowl, mixer or by hand, add the eggs, almond extract, oil and a cup of the cherry juice.

Mix together till smooth and no pockets of flour remain but don’t overmix (it toughens the cake). The batter is not too thick, not too thin. Add the floured cherries to the batter quickly. K.

Pour into your greased and floured pan.

Pop into your preheated oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes or till a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let cake cool on wire rack till cold.

Mix together the icing of powdered sugar, cherry juice (start with a tablespoon and see if it needs more to thin it but no more than 2 tablespoons. Usually one and a half is the amount) and almond extract. Drizzle over cold cake. The scent of the cherry and almond will drive everyone crazy, it’s amazing.

Cherry Cake with Cherry Icing

350 grams (2 cups) drained sour cherries in syrup (reserve all the liquid),
you should have approximately 1 1/3 cups of syrup (325 ml)
2 tablespoons flour for coating cherries

2 1/2 cups (312 grams) all purpose flour
1 cup (200 grams ) white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup (177 ml) oil
1 cup (240 ml) of the reserved cherry syrup

Glaze:
1 cup(113.5 grams) powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons cherry syrup
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C.
Prepare a bundt or tube pan by oiling and flouring it. After draining the cherries, reserve the liquid – 1 cup will be for the cake, 2 tablespoons will be for the icing. Set aside the liquid.

Toss the drained cherries with the 2 tablespoons of flour in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl of either a mixer or by hand, put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in and mix together. Add in the eggs, almond extract, oil and cup of reserved cherry juice. Mix all the cake ingredients together till smooth, just till you eliminate pockets of flour mixture, don’t overmix. Add the floured cherries (don’t scoop up the liquid which may have accumulated) and mix quickly into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt or tube pan and pop into the preheated oven. Bake 35-45 minutes or till wooden toothpick comes out with a few clinging crumbs and top is a nice pinkish color. Cool on a wire rack.

Once cake is completely cooled (if hot, the icing will dissolve into the cake) mix the powdered sugar with the reserved cherry juice and the almond extract, adding just enough juice to get a nice icing which will also turn a pinkish color. Let icing set and serve generously.