Cherry Almond Cake
This luscious Cherry Almond Cake is a wonderful dessert for any occasion. Chopped maraschino cherries are folded into rich almond cake batter for moist layers with the perfect balance of flavors.
Table of Contents
Why we Love it
There are so many reasons to love this Cherry Almond Cake. Here are a few:
- Moist cake with a fine crumb.
- Delicate almond flavor with bits of maraschino cherries in every slice.
- Makes for a beautiful slice
- Neither flavor is overpowering. The cherry and almond are perfectly balanced.
- Great birthday cake recipe, holiday cake, and more! If you love light and flavorful cakes with fruit, this belongs on your must-bake list!
- The recipe calls for cream cheese into the cake batter, which makes for a velvety soft texture (as with our other velvet cake recipes like white velvet cake, lemon velvet cake).
Ingredients for Cherry Almond Cake
Here's a quick look at the star ingredients for today's cake recipe. You'll find the full listing in our recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Buttermilk: The boost of acidity softens the strands of gluten in the cake batter, making for a more tender cake.
Cake Flour: Many of our favorite recipes (from lemon cake to almond cake and more) call for cake flour. It has a lower protein content than all purpose flour, which lessens the formation of gluten. This results in a softer, more tender cake.
Cream Cheese adds richness to the cake as well as a uniquely velvety texture.
Maraschino Cherries Add color and flavor to every slice. We also brushed our cake layers with maraschino cherry juice for an added boost of flavor.
Unsalted Butter We prefer to use unsalted butter in this recipe, and then add salt separately. This way, we know exactly how much salt is in the cake. (Some brands of salted butter contain more salt than others.)
How to Make Cherry Almond Cake
Here is a quick look at the steps for our cherry almond cake. You can find the full, printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans, adding a circle of parchment or wax paper to the bottom of each pan.
- Sprinkle the chopped almonds evenly on the bottom of the three prepared pans.
- Finely chop the maraschino cherries (one cup) and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together for 30 seconds and set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, vegetable oil, and almond extract.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet). After last addition, mix just until combined.
- Fold in the finely chopped maraschino cherries. As you fold in the cherries, you may have some swirls of pink here and there from the juice as we did.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared pans (which have been sprinkled with chopped almonds). Smooth over the batter with the back of a spoon.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
- You can see the almond pieces in the photo below, which are visible once the layers have been turned out.
Assembling the Cake
Once the cake layers have fully cooled, it is time to put the cake together! Today, we've used a creamy and delicious Almond Cream Cheese Frosting as our filling and frosting.
We will also be brushing the top of each cherry cake with the reserved maraschino cherry juice as we go!
Place the first cherry almond cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Brush with maraschino cherry juice. The juice is thin and so it soaks in immediately. I did a fairly light coating across the top.
Next, spread the top with almond cream cheese frosting.
Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer. Fill in any gaps between layers with frosting, then frost over the top of the cake and around the sides with a thin coat of frosting.
At this point, we like to chill the cake for 15 minutes in the freezer (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final layer of frosting.
Our cake is frosted very simply, using a small offset spatula to create texture on top and around the sides.
Next, we pressed sliced almonds around the bottom of the cake to create a border. We topped it with swirls of frosting (from a 2D star piping tip), and then topped each with a maraschino cherry.
Here's a peek inside! Don't you just want to dive in? We hope that you enjoy it!
Recipe FAQs
More Cherry Cakes
We've made many light and fruity cherry cakes over the years! Some of our favorites are our Chocolate Cherry Cake, Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake, and homemade Cherry Cake.
*Also, if you love almond, make sure to check out our popular scratch almond cake recipe as well!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this cherry almond cake recipe. We'd love for you to check out our full collection of cake recipes. We also have tons of free cake decorating tutorials if you are interested in cake design!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Cherry Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 8 oz (226g) package cream cheese, softened (226g)
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (168g)
- 2 cups sugar (400g)
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups cake flour (342g) See notes for substitution.
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 cup buttermilk (242g)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (we used canola oil) (54g)
- 3 teaspoons almond extract (12g)
- 1 cup Maraschino cherries, finely chopped (170g)(save the juice) We used a 16 oz. jar, reserving 6 cherries for the top of the cake.
For Sprinkling the prepared Cake Pans (before batter)
- ½ cup sliced almonds, finely chopped (48g) You can do a rough chop if you'd prefer more crunch. This is sprinkled in pans rather than incorporating into batter.
For Glazing Layers
- Juice from jar of Maraschino Cherries You will not use all of the juice-- just about ¼-½cup). Optional but gives a great boost of cherry flavor.
For the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
- 16 oz cream cheese, softened (Total weight 452g). We recommend "full fat" cream cheese.
- 1-2 teaspoons almond extract (4-8g) We used 2 teaspoons.
- ½ teaspoon salt 2g
- 7 cups confectioners sugar (805g) Adjust slightly up or down to your liking.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans, adding a circle of parchment or wax paper to the bottom of each pan.
- Sprinkle the chopped, sliced almonds evenly on the bottom of the three prepared pans. You can chop them in a food processor. Or, place in a ziplock bag and roll/hit with a rolling pin to break into smaller pieces.
- Finely chop the maraschino cherries (one cup) and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, and almond extract. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- Mixing on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet). After last addition, mix just until combined.
- Fold in the finely chopped maraschino cherries.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared pans (which have been sprinkled with chopped almonds). Smooth over the batter with the back of a spoon.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
- This recipe makes 7 ½ cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also (although there will be little to no dome).
For the Almond Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mix batter on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
- Add the softened cream cheese to the butter, mixing at low to medium speed until smooth and well combined.
- Add the almond flavoring. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Add coloring gel if you are tinting the frosting.
- Continue to mix on low to medium speed until well combined and smooth.
- Store in the refrigerator. If making the frosting in advance, allow to sit on the kitchen counter until it comes closer to room temperature. You may need to remix.
Assembling the Cake
- Place the first cake layer on a cake base or pedestal. Lightly brush over the top with maraschino cherry juice (from the jar of cherries). We used a silicone pastry brush for this. It is thin, it will sink in immediately.
- Next, spread the top of the layer with cream cheese frosting. Top with the second cake layer and repeat (brush with cherry juice, frost with frosting). Top with the third cake layer.
- Fill in any gaps between cake layers with frosting. Frost a thin layer of frosting on top and around the sides of the cake. At this point, we like to chill the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final coat of frosting.
- Decorate however you like! We added texture with an offset spatula, and then pressed a border of sliced almonds around the bottom. We piped swirls around the top with a 2D large star piping tip and topped with maraschino cherries.
Storage
- This cake should be refrigerated in an airtight container or under a cake dome. For best flavor and texture, remove the cake 2-3 hours before serving so that the cake and frosting have plenty of time to warm and soften.
is there any way to only make 2 layers . I need cake measurements for only two people
Looks and sounds fantastic! :-)
Awesome as always! :-)
I made this for my son's first birthday and everyone raved about it. Most were intrigued by the idea of a cherry almond flavor, but once they tried it, they loved it. Even my no cake eating husband tried a piece because everyone was commenting how good it was, and he liked it.
Hi Christie! I'm so glad that you all loved it! Thanks so much for your feedback ;0)
Delicious! In my oven it took a lot longer to solidify and accidentally got a little dry (it was jiggling like Jello after 25 min, but 35 was a hair too long). Two tweaks, one I made and one I should have:
1. I used Italian cocktail cherries, deeper flavor and deeper red.
2. Next time, I would toast the almonds first. I did that for the ones on the outside, but not the ones at the bottom of the pan. I think they'd hold up better, and more depth.
Definitely making this again!