Cherry Cake! My favourite. This is a traditional recipe made easy using the all-in-one method.
My mother tells the story of my father’s first visit to her family home. Granny offered tea and cake and my father duly complimented her on her ‘lovely Madeira cake’. Oops! Apparently, my grandmother was a bit miffed – not surprisingly, as she had made her best cherry loaf cake. Unfortunately, my father had a slice with no cherries.
My classic cherry cake recipe is based on Granny’s, a cherry Madeira cake really – a nice firm cake, which keeps well. Of all my easy cherry cake recipes, this is my go-to when I want a quick and easy cake. If you want a softer cherry sponge cake recipe with icing see the Iced Cherry Cake recipe.
Key Ingredients in Cherry Cake
Original red or dark natural-dyed cherries?
Whatever you like is the short answer. I often use the darker cherries these days but red are fine too (as here!). My only warning, as always, is to check for natural dyes if you have children as E127 isn’t recommended for them.
Butter
This cake is fairly plain, apart from the cherries and a lot of the appeal is in its buttery taste, so it’s worth using butter for this recipe. In fact, I always do use butter because I prefer the flavour – and, of course, nearly 100 years ago, my grandmother would have only used butter!
Ground almonds
Nothing beats the flavours of a cherry and almond cake. The ground almonds also add texture and help the cake keep longer by retaining moisture. If you want extra almond flavour, add a few drops of almond extract.
Ring the changes
Make a Fresh Cherry Cake
During the short season that you can buy fresh cherries, you could use those instead. You need 250g cherries, washed and stoned to give about 220g to use. Cut them into halves and/or quarters. Cooking time is the same.
Make a round Cherry Cake
Cook the cake in a 7-inch/18cm deep round tin. Cooking time is the same.
Secrets of Success
Easy, all-in-one method
As with most of my cakes, this cherry loaf cake is made using the all-in-one method – put everything in the bowl and mix it well. Two points to bear in mind:
You need soft butter
Your butter does need to be very soft if you’re attempting this by hand. If it isn’t very soft, try helping it along in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time – but be careful not to overdo it.
Mix the cherries by hand
Don’t include the cherries in your all-in-one mix. They must be added at the end, by hand even if you did the rest with a machine. What you don’t want is a pink cake with flecks of cherry
How to get cherries in every slice
- Firstly, I use a lot more cherries than the original recipe so they aren’t so thinly spread
- Second, I wash and dry the cherries before I use them to avoid too much sinkage. (Although I’m not too bothered about that mostly.)
- Third, quarter the cherries so they aren’t so heavy. I don’t actually do this – I always halve the cherries – because for me a cherry cake is all about big chunks of cherry!
- Fourth, which I’ve also never done (because I can’t be bothered), keep some of the cherries bake and poke them into the mixture once it’s in the tin. It’s probably only worth doing when you want to impress someone – like a would-be suitor for your daughter.
Why are my cakes sometimes dry?
If your cakes turn out dry, check out my article Why Is My Cake Dry? for some of the most common reasons and the solutions.
Does it freeze?
Cherry Cake freezes well. Wrap in foil or, I’ve recently tried beeswax wraps, which work well. Keep for up to 3 months. If you don’t eat much cake, you can cut it in half and freeze half for later. I often make two cakes and freeze one for later, as it’s so more-ish.
HELPFUL TOOLS
- Baking parchment loaf tin liner – Line the tin with a liner and forget about it sticking, or greasing the tin – and the washing up is easier too. Leave the cake in the liner if you’re freezing the cake, or while storing in the fridge to keep it moist
- Beeswax Loaf Wrap – I’m trying to reduce the amount of clingfilm, foil and plastic bags that I use, and my biggest problem has been something to wrap loaf cakes in for the freezer. I’ve now found large beeswax wraps that will cover a loaf of bread, and are ideal for loaf cakes. They’re washable and you can even rejuvenate them. Definitely worth a look.
If you like this…
…Why don’t you try:
Iced Cherry Cake
Cherry Scones
Cherry and Almond Traybake
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Baking parchment loaf tin liner
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Cherry Cake
Ingredients
- 200 g glacé cherries save 3 or 4 for the top if desired
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 160 g butter, at room temperature
- 160 g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 25 g ground almonds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)
Instructions
Preparation:
- Set the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/ gas mark 4/ 350°F
- Grease a 2lb loaf tin with butter or use a paper liner
- Halve the cherries, then wash in warm water and dry. This will remove the syrup and stop them sinking too much. Quarter them if you want a better distribution. If you're short of time, don't bother to wash. The cherries may sink but the cake will still taste fabulous
For the cake:
- Put all the ingredients except the cherries into a large bowl and mix well with a mixer or in a food processor.(Flour, butter, sugar, eggs, ground almonds, vanilla extract)
- Add the cherries and fold in with a large spoon until they are evenly distributed through the mixture.
- Put the cake mixture into the prepared tin and make a slight dip along the centre to stop it peaking when cooked
- Put a few extra cherries on top and dredge with castor sugar
- Cook for 45-60 minutes until well risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean
- Take the cake out of the oven and leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool
Nisha says
This recipe worked so well! Thank you 😀
Susie Collings says
You’re welcome 🙂
Angela Southall says
An absolutely beautiful cake but the cherries all fell to the bottom. I washed and dried them and folded them in be hand. Any ideas?
Susie Collings says
Hi Angela, You could chop them smaller. Something that sometimes happens is that when you scrape the cake out of the bowl into the tin the last lot of mixture doesn’t have any cherries in. To get round that you could leave some out and poke them in the top.
Heather Vipers says
Why does it bother you so much? Was it tasty? Aesthetic maybe, but so what?
Sheridan says
Years ago I made a cherry cake and I thought it was all ground almonds and no flour do you think it would work
Donna says
Hi susie will normal sugar be ok to put in cherry cake as forgot to get more caster sugar when shopping
Susie Collings says
Hi Donna, If you have a blender or food processor you can whizz up the sugar to make caster sugar. Otherwise, you can use it as it is but you may find that you get some tiny dots of sugar in the cake where it hasn’t dissolved completely. Not a disaster though!
Cheers – Susie
Jaybo Hood says
As long as the sugar police don’t catch you doing it. They are really cracking down on this type of misdemeanour. Fortunately, you haven’t included your full address. As long as they don’t get your IP address, then I think you may have gotten away with it this time.
Should you use the wrong type of sugar in future, my advice is to keep it low key and just hope you don’t get visited by the CID (cake investigation department) or we’ll all be doing a stretch for conspiracy or worse. Then what’ll happen? Did you hear about poor old humpty dumpty? He didn’t fall. No. The grand old Duke of York discovered Mr. Dumpty had used the wrong sugar. Oh the ignominy of it. Even the horses were ashamed. They didn’t know where to look. And the grand old Duke just cleared off back up the hill as if nothing had happened.
Heather Vipers says
Brilliant response. You have sense. Poster does not. Xxx
Heather says
I can not get hold of ground almonds in Spain. Should I add more flour or just ignore them completely?
Thanks
Susie Collings says
Hi Heather, Replace the ground almonds with extra flour – no problem. Cheers – Susie
Heather Vipers says
Thank you Susie, I thought that was the way forward, as they say nowadays. Have been a trained chef in the past. Living in Spain with totally different ingredients can be a small challenge at times. x
Susie Collings says
Hi Heather. I’m guessing, from my limited knowledge of Spain, that cakes and puddings are quite different so some of the ingredients would be a bit of a challenge. But all that sunshine… 🙂
Jenny says
If you can’t find ground almonds, put sliced almonds in a pestle and mortar and grind well, they work just as well in this recipe
Susie Collings says
Good tip Jenny 🙂
Heather Vipers says
I know thanks. Patronising me is not good. Thanks for your lovely comment.
brinacyl says
Hello! I am planning to make this delicious cake and wondering if I can use fresh cherries? Many thanks
Susie Collings says
I haven’t tried fresh cherries in this recipe, so I can’t give a definitive answer, but I know others have tried and succeeded! The cake will be slightly more moist and won’t keep for quite as long – and best in the fridge.
Let me know how it goes if you try it. Cheers – Susie
UPDATE: Making this cake with fresh cherries works well – see Fresh Cherry Cake for more details
brinacyl says
Hi Susie. I tried your cake with half glace cherries and half fresh cherries. Happy to report the fresh ones did not bleed and in fact, I liked fresh cherries more. I would also like to add the cake turned out superb and everyone enjoyed it. I reduced the sugar by 20% and butter by 15 grams. Many thanks for this recipe. I will be making some of your other recipes very soon.
Susie Collings says
Hi. Glad you tried with some fresh cherries. I really like it too and it’s less sweet than using glace. Thanks for the idea 🙂 Cheers – Susie
Susie Collings says
I have now tried this recipe with fresh cherries and it’s good. I used 250g cherries which gave about 220g when stoned, cut in halves and quarters – a bit of both. Cooking time was the same. I will post a separate recipe for Fresh Cherry Cake soon. Cheers – Susie
Sue Curtis says
Hi made your fruit cake and was lovely. My question is to freeze do you wrap in cling film or plastic container. Best regards take care Sue
Susie Collings says
Hi Sue, I prefer to wrap cakes to keep all the air out, so I’ve been using clingfilm or foil. I am looking at eco-friendly alternatives. Apparently you can freeze beeswax wraps which I’ve ordered. I will report back!
Cheers – Susie
Susie Collings says
BTW, Beeswax wraps are perfect for storing loaf cakes in the fridge or freezer. S
Julie jones says
I made your cherry cake and it was a huge success, everyone loved it – even my chocoholic son who normally only eats chocolate cake!
Susie Collings says
Hi Julie,
Well, in my opinion you can’t beat a cherry cake 🙂 Glad you all liked it. – Susie
Margaret duguid says
Hi susie I’m going to try your recipe tomorrow I will let you know how I get on .
Susie Collings says
Hi Margaret, Hope you enjoyed the cake.
Alison says
I’ve done this recipe numerous times, it always comes out beautifully and it is really easy.
Susie says
Hi Alison,
Thanks for letting me know. I just love Cherry Cake!
Cheers – Susie
Sylvia Cebula says
Turned out really well, family loved it!
Susie says
Hi Sylvia, So pleased you like it. This is one of my favourites!
Cheers – Susie
KJC says
Excellent cake