Cherry Cake Recipe

Making a cherry cake recipe – or any other kind of baking – is always a good way to keep Missy occupied. For all of about five minutes. Then she’s off doing something else, leaving me to grease the cake tins, add the mixture, put it in the oven and check the time. (At least that’s easier these days, simply asking Alexa to set a 20-minute timer.)

Anyway, a rainy day led to my baking a glacé cherry cake recipe. Easy, yummy and pretty. It is based on my no-fail basic Victoria Sponge plus glacé cherries, rather than a Madeira cake with cherries. I don’t add too much fruit to my mixture for two reasons. They are very sweet. Also I like to reserve some to decorate the top with. (The latter also means, very democratically, that everyone gets a cherry, assuming the cake is cut into 12 slices.)

I use just half a tub of ready-made icing too, again to control the sweetness level a little. Of course you might rather use the whole tubs of cherries and icing. It’s your cake, make it your way!

You could add a teaspoon of almond extract to create an almond and cherry cake recipe, for example (if you use ground almonds then add a little milk to the cake mix to prevent it being dry.) Or add dried as well as glacé fruit to make it a sultana and cherry cake recipe. Many cherry cake recipes are for a cherry loaf cake. There’s no reason why you couldn’t make this in a loaf tin, but it will need longer to cook. About 30 minutes of cooking in the oven should do it – use a skewer to check.

Cherry cake recipe ingredients

Cherry cake

• Self raising flour, 150g
• Granulated or caster sugar, 150g
• Salt, a pinch
• Baking margarine (or butter), 150g, cubed
• Eggs, 3
• Vanilla or almond extract, 1 tsp
• Glacé cherries, 1/2 – 1 tub (I use around half – see above)

Icing and topping

• Cream cheese icing, 1/2 – 1 tub
• Glacé cherries ( I used 6, halved)
• Sprinkles (optional)

Equipment

• Kitchen scales
• Measuring spoons
• Food processor
• Mixing bowl
• Silicone spatula
• Cake tins
• Metal skewer
• Wire rack

How to make this cherry cake recipe

• Grease the cake tins and preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan or equivalent.
• Place all the cake ingredients – except the cherries – into your food processor or mixer and blitz until well combined (mine takes about 15-20 seconds). Or may take slightly longer if using butter – making sure it’s at room temperature before you start can help.
• Scrape the mixture into a bowl, then add the cherries (don’t forget to reserve enough for the top if you want to decorate the cake with them) and mix in.
• Divide the mixture between two cake tins, then bake for around 20 minutes before checking to see if they are cooked by inserting a metal skewer into each (if there’s no cake batter on the skewer, they’re ready).
• Cool for 5 – 10 minutes in the tins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing and decorating as you wish.

Related recipes:

• Kids’ biscuit recipe
• Butterfly fairy cakes
• Elderflower & lemon drizzle cake
• Poppy seed cake with orange
• Victoria sponge cake

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