This Amaretto Cherry Almond Cake is made of a soft almond sponge cake with a layer of amaretto soaked cherries! Drizzled with a cherry glaze and optionally a dollop of fresh whipped cream. This dessert is light and yet, completely satisfying especially with a cup of coffee or tea.
I genuinely think about this cherry cake all the time - especially during peak cherry season! Thankfully, this cake can still be made year round with frozen sweet pitted cherries.
This Amaretto Cherry Almond Cake light and fluffy - it's perfect to split with friends and family or to eat yourself over the course of a week. Trust me, I did just that with a cup of tea and it was highly enjoyable. The whole cake was gone within 48 hours!!
The base of this cake is a soft, crumbly almond cake. I find that almond cakes tend is be dense but this one is light and bright! When paired with the bold tangy cherries soaked in the amaretto?? I meannn... this is next level addicting!
The glaze and whipped cream brings the extra sweetness but keeps the cake light in comparison to a frosted cake. And, of course, the amount of glaze/whipped cream you add will be completely up to you.
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This can work with almost any fruit. Macerate the fruit beforehand and pair it with an alcohol to compliment (or sans alcohol is fine, too!). Let me know if other fruits work if you decide to try it!
For more recipes with amaretto, check out this Flourless Nutella Cake and Amaretto Sour.
How to make the Cherry Almond Cake
Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature to ensure a moist cake. Start with macerating and soaking the cherries because they need to sit to let the juices flow out.
Step 1: Start with the cherries because they'll need to sit. Cut them in half and pit them if you haven't already. Use a cherry pitter to reduce the effort. Coat them in a thin layer of sugar and add a pinch of salt along with the amaretto. Toss and allow it to sit. After 30 minutes, drain all the liquid into another bowl and set aside.
Step 2: In the meantime, whip the softened butter and sugar in a bowl on medium speed. It should be light and fluffy before adding eggs. Add in one egg at a time and mix until they're fully incorporated.
Step 3: Add the rest of the liquids - the lemon juice, almond extract, and almond paste. Break up the almond paste as much as possible.
Step 4: Whisk together all the dry ingredients - the all purpose flour, almond flour, salt, and baking powder.
Step 5: Next, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated. The batter will be thick.
Step 6: Remove the springform (8 in) from the base of the pan and layer a sheet of parchment paper. Reattach the springform and cut off excess parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and the sides of the cake pan.
Step 7: Evenly spread about ¾ of the cake batter into the pan. Layer the cherries to completely cover the top. Spread the rest of the batter on top of the cherries. The cherries may sink or pop out on the top, either is fine.
Step 8: Sprinkle coarse sugar on to the cake. Pop it into the oven at 350°F degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the middle. The cake is done if it comes out clean and the top has browned. Remove the springform and allow the cake to cool completely.
Step 9: In the meantime, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and about a tablespoon of the amaretto cherry liquid. The glaze should be thick, but runny enough to drizzle. The amaretto cherry liquid gives color to the glaze.
Serving Instructions
Once the cake has cooled, drizzle the glaze on top of the cake. Another option is to top it with roasted sliced almonds for an added crunch and a healthy dose of powdered sugar.
For the whipped cream - Add the heavy whipping cream, amaretto, and powdered sugar into a shaker bottle. Shake for two minutes until it thickens. Spoon it on top of the cake and garnish it with a fresh cherry.
Storing the Cake
Store the cake under a cake dome for up to 5 days. The cake will not last that long without being eaten, but in case it does make sure it's properly stored. The cake will dry out if it is not covered. It does not need to be refrigerated.
The cake can be frozen for up to 2 months. Make the glaze only when it's ready to be served.
More Cake Recipes to try
Looking for more dessert recipes? Here’s a few to try!
Recipe
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Amaretto Cherry Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups pitted and halved bing cherries
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup amaretto
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sugar, , additional for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 oz almond paste
- ¾ cup AP flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Cherry Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Amaretto Whipped Cream (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon amaretto
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Macerate the pitted cherries in a bowl with sugar, amaretto, and a pinch of salt. Allow it to sit for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, drain the liquid and transfer a tablespoon of the juice to a small bowl, along with the milk and confectioners sugar. Whisk together to form a glaze.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a bowl, whisk together the AP flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt and set it aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and then the lemon juice, and almond extract. Break up the almond paste as much as possible and add it into the wet ingredients. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated.
- Prep an 8-inch springform cake pan by putting a piece of circular parchment paper on the bottom and greasing it. Spread about ¾ of the cake batter evenly on the bottom. Create a layer of macerated cherries, and then layer the rest of the cake batter. Sprinkle the top with coarse granulated sugar.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, inserting a toothpick into the middle and checking if it comes out clean for doneness. Allow the cake to thoroughly cool on a rack. Drizzle the amaretto cherry glaze once the cake has cooled.
- (Optional) Whip together the amaretto, heavy cream, and powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Add a dollop to a slice.
Notes
- The cake is not meant to have a ton of height. Ensure you're using an 8 inch cake pan or smaller so that there's enough cake batter.
- Break up the almond paste with a brick and mortar, food processor, or a fork before adding it in to prevent clumps.
Allison Clayton says
Shweta, what a great recipe! I love making cherry cakes - I put one in my blog recently, though it's admittedly a "cheater cake" as I call it and I use a box mix, ha! - and this just takes it up a notch. Your recipe is easy to follow, you wrote clear instructions, and it came out PERFECTLY. Plus, I'm an amaretto lover, any excuse to some Disaronno. 😉 Good to use some cherries before they're out of season and I have to pay $20 a pound for them, ha! Though might this work with frozen - then - thawed cherries? Could try this during the winter when cherries aren't in season. 🙂
Shweta says
Cherry cakes are the absolute best, plus Disaronno?!! Likeee say no more. I haven't tried it with frozen cherries but as long as defrosting doesn't add TOO much moisture in addition to the amaretto, I don't see why not 🙂 I'll definitely be trying this cake with some other in season fruits as well! Thank you so much for the positive comment, Allison!
cynthia says
I wanted to LOOOOVVVEEE this recipe because it looks so delicious in the picture, but the recipe is FLAWED and needs to be fixed ASAP!! I printed it and followed it exactly as it was printed. I put the flour & dry stuff together and set it off to the side. I continued with everything, and then was putting the batter in the pan, and i knew something was wrong. There wasn't enough batter, and it looked very skimpy. Plus my almond paste felt clumped up, and that was odd. I put it in the pan, stuck it in the oven, and was cleaning up--only to realize that in the recipe, it doesn't ever say to add the dry flour to the butter and sugar!!! NOOOOOOOO! 🙁 So I made an absolute mess. I took the pan out of the oven (it had been in only 5 min, and then I ruined the cherry layer bc everything had to go back in the bowl, I added the missing flour, and mixed it up. I then had to re-clean the pan and add new parchment... In the end, it was a real mess! My cake came out okay--but it wasn't as I hoped. It was a waste of cherries and amaretto!
Very disappointing, and that's a HUGE recipe FAIL!! So at the end of step 2, you need to add the part where you're supposed to add the dry ingredients (flour and such) to the butter, sugar, and almond paste. That's a serious miss for a recipe!!
I might try it again another time, but it was a frustrating experience. The only up side was that I was also making another cake right after that (different recipe), and that one came out perfectly, so that the I still had a dessert for our guests--but I was very disappointed about this!
Cynthia
Shweta says
Hi Cynthia! Thank you for your feedback! I'm so sorry your experience was disappointing. A lot of the issues you experienced are covered in more detail the description of the post so I do hope you try it again and that the section labeled "HOW TO MAKE THE CHERRY ALMOND CAKE" is helpful.
A few things -
1. Folding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients is mentioned at the end of step 2.
2. Almond paste is clumpy as mentioned in the post and needs to be broken up as much as possible. You can put it in a food processor before adding it.
3. The cake is meant to be thin like one layer in a tiered cake for example, so I recommend using a 8in cake pan (linked one in the post!) or smaller. I actually used a 9in cake pan for all the photos in this post!
4. The cherries don't have to be a perfect layer! 🙂 They can be completely mixed into the batter and it won't make a difference.
To anyone else that reads this, PLEASE PUT FLOUR IN YOUR CAKE BEFORE BAKING lol