Are you tired of all my cherry recipes yet? I hope not. I can never have enough cherries. I eat them fresh for breakfast. Stir them into my oatmeal. Snack on them. Add them to kale salads. And of course, I bake with them a lot.
Unfortunately cherry season is quickly coming to an end. It does so without warning. One week the stores are full of cherries at reasonably low prices (not quite as much when you buy eight pounds of them, but still), and the next they’re gone. Replaced by grapes.
Don’t get me wrong, grapes can be awesome too. They’re fun to snack on, roast, and bake with, but cherries are such a treat. One we haven’t even figured out how to grow year round as opposed to nearly all the other produce in the store.
This is most likely the last of my cherry recipes … until next year. Now we’ll just have to focus on peaches and blueberries, before gearing up for apple season. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves though, this is one tasty cherry recipe.
I made this for the first time four years ago. I’ve been wanting to make it for the blog since, but I never got around to it. I couldn’t let this year slip by without it.
Sour Cherry Bundt Cake is pretty much the cake of my dreams. The tender, fine crumb vanilla cake is surrounded by crumb topping. Sure, the recipe says to only use some of it, but who doesn’t want extra crumb topping? Oh, and then there are those little ruby red cherries. They add a hint of tart, bright flavor and definitely pack a punch of juice.
Before you retire cherries for the summer, make this cake. And if they’ve already gone out of season, pick up some frozen ones. I think thawed, drained cherries would work just fine.
Sour Cherry Bundt Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup milk (I used almond, use what you love)
- 2 cups sour cherries, pitted
Streusel
- 2 ¼ cups al-purpose flour
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup canola oil
Instructions
- Make the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a large Bundt pan (even if it is nonstick).
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I did this by hand, but a hand or stand mixer will work too. Beat in eggs one at a time followed by vanilla bean paste.
- Add the flour and milk alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.
- Make the streusel. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt until combined. Add the oil and stir until clumps of various sizes form.
- Add about half the streusel to the bottom of the prepared Bundt pan. Spread half of the batter over the streusel. Sprinkle evenly with cherries, trying to keep them away from the edge of the pan to prevent them from burning. Top with the remainder of the streusel, followed by the remainder of the batter.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs, 50-60 minutes. Let cool about 15 minutes in the pan before carefully loosening the cake and inverting it onto a serving platter. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
- Cake may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen in pieces, wrapped in parchment and foil and placed in a zipper bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for about an hour or in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
Yup, cherry season never lasts long enough. Particularly sour cherry season around here — hard to find sometimes. But when I do, I need to make this. Terrific looking cake! Thanks so much.
I’m pretty sure cherry season has already ended here, which makes me so sad!! Bookmarking this for next year. You are the queen of sour cherry desserts!
Awwww … thanks, Joanne!
I never see sour cherries in the grocery. I guess I need to go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Never could I tire of cherries either. Love this….shared on Facebook
I’ve only seen them at the farmers’ market … they are tough to track down, but most stores should have frozen ones.
I need to make this as soon as those darn cherries go on sale again! My hubby would love this cake!
If you dredge your cherries with flour, it will prevent that soggy area around them!
Hi Angie! Thanks for the tip, but that’s the streusel, not a soggy area, and it’s actually one of the best parts of the cake.
Why did the streusel in the middle of the cake? Did I miss that in the instructions?
Hi Angie! Yes, in the sixth paragraph of the instructions, it says to place half the streusel in the bottom of the pan, followed by half the batter, the cherries, the remainder of the streusel and finally the rest of the batter. I hope this helps!
I made this yesterday with sour cherries we picked last summer in Door County, WI. I drained them well for a few hours before I baked this amazing cake! Moist, tasty, eye-rolling! Kudos !
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed, Linda! Can’t wait for sour cherry season to return!!