This cherry cake recipe is in partnership with our favorite brand, Bob’s Red Mill.
Guys, why have I never made cherry cake before? You know how much I love homemade cake recipes. I’ve had this one on my list, for awhile. And oh boy, am I glad I tried it. I made this cake with Bob’s Red Mill, which is my secret to all my delicious cakes, and it’s fantastic! Just sweet enough, and tasty and fruity. My son intended to only taste the cake, but after he had one bite he couldn’t get enough!
What’s great about this homemade cake is that it turns that lovely pink color without any food coloring. It’s especially perfect when we use Bob Red Mill’s Organic Flour which, as you know, we think is the BEST quality flour you can get. Our cakes are so simple and use such few ingredients that we think using only the best is essential.
I gotta be honest guys, normally I hate maraschino cherries with a passion. This cake is sweet, but the perfect amount. And it takes on the perfect amount of cherry taste, enough that it is definitely present and you will enjoy it but not enough to make your teeth hurt as you can sometimes get with maraschino cherries.
That being said, fresh cherries just take more time to pit and cut up, and the taste may come out more subtle but give it a try if you like! This cake is essentially a white cake with cherry juice as the majority of the wet ingredients, instead of milk. So, if you want to use fresh cherries without the juice the maraschino cherries have, you’ll have to either use cherry juice or more milk.
And guys, I know I’m gushing at this point…but the frosting! Make sure you beat the butter enough so it can be thick and rich and the perfect amount of sweet, so it pairs perfectly with the cake! For those of you who hate how sweet buttercream is, I promise you’ll love this recipe!
Our secret to evenly distribute the cherries in the cherry frosting and cake is by using a food chopper. In fact, Katie got this one for Christmas and she’s been using it for everything she can. Of course if you don’t have a food chopper or don’t want to deal with the mess that can come with it you can always chop up your cherries so they are small or use a food processor or blender.
When making your frosting, add powdered sugar slowly.
Don’t worry if you often forget this, I do this all the time. If you add the powdered sugar all at once it will fly everywhere, and powdered sugar can easily make a mess. In fact, when Katie went to the store to buy the ingredients for this recipe she accidentally grabbed a bag of powdered sugar with a hole in it…it got all over the front of her! So tip: careful with your sugar.
Also, adding your powdered sugar slowly helps your frosting to stay nice and smooth without getting grainy.
Where are maraschino cherries in the grocery store?
This depends on your store, but you can usually find them either with the canned fruit or in the condiment aisle.
How long can a cake sit out at room temperature?
Generally, four to five days. However, the cake will get progressively drier the longer it sits out.
Some quick tips for great cakes:
- always use room temperature milk and butter.
- add the eggs one at a time and beat well in between each addition.
- measure the dry ingredients carefully.
- beat the egg whites separately, until foamy, and gently fold into the batter. You can check out THIS POST for info about what those frothy egg whites should be.
- watch your time carefully!
Cherry Cake with Cherry Frosting
Ingredients
Cherry Cake
- 2 and 1/8 cups flour
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, room temp
- 1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice
- 1/3 cup maraschino cherries, cut small
- 1/4 cup milk room temperature
- 4 egg whites room temperature
Cherry Frosting
- 1 cup butter, room temp 2 sticks
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3-1/2 cup maraschino cherries, cut small based on how much cherry flavor you’d like
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Cake Recipe
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 by 13 inch cake pan or 1/4 sheet pan.
- Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Beat the butter to creamy first, then SLOWLY add milk, then cherries and juice.
- Add them to dry ingredients. Beat mixture for 2 minutes.
- Beat the egg whites separately. Gently fold into the batter.
- Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through. (check at the 25 minute mark)
Frosting Recipe
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Be sure to add the powdered sugar slowly to minimize mess. Mix until well blended, then increase mixer speed and allow to mix for 3 minutes or until fluffy.
- Add cherries and salt and mix until incorporated. Spread on cooled cake.
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This is such a yummy, pretty cake! My kids were super excited as they love maraschino cherries. It turns out a beautiful pink that my daughter loved. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
Unsalted.
Is the butter salted or unsalted?
Silken tofu? That is so clever!!
Made this with cherry pie filling instead of maraschino cherries because that’s what was in the cupboard, and I used 1/2 cup silken tofu as an egg substitute. It turned out great. I cut it into tiny tea cakes originally served with an afternoon tea for just my husband and I. He loved this cake because it is delectably moist and fluffy, so much so that he ended up eating all the tea cakes pretty much single-handedly over the course of probably a couple weeks. Thank you for sharing this excellent recipe. I’m dropping a comment because I’m back here to make the cake for him again, but using a can of peaches instead of cherries. Looks like this versatile recipe is going to be a favorite!
you know, I haven’t ever tried it. But the texture and structure of it seem to say yes. If you do try it, let me know how it goes.
Can you layer this cake?
Oi!!! Seriously thanks for commenting and bringing this to my attention. I’ve updated this and have zero idea why it says shortening. I must have been thinking about shortening for some reason when I wrote the recipe up. The cake pan was updated. I use a 1/4 sheet pan in the picture but a 9 by 13 pan would be about right. Not sure what’s up with that frosting. I don’t really notice the difference but maybe I’ve been staring at it too long. There shouldn’t be any difference. The cake was cooled before frosted and then cut and photographed. That’s a strange one, indeed. Maybe my kids used their fingers to swipe frosting and then cover it up :).
9 by 13 cake pan or a 1/4 sheet pan. So sorry! Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
I have a couple questions. the ingredients say butter but the recipe says shortening. also, the pan size is pretty important and is not mentioned. so, which is it? also, the icing in the picture of indidual pieces looks like it was melted on the cake and in the picture with the whole cake it looks completely different, like it’s cooled. so should the cake be warm so the icing kind of melts or should the cake be cool so the it stays frosting and not icing?
I may be missing it – but what size pan is this? I don’t see where you say…