Cherry Almond Bundt Cake
Springtime means it’s cherry season and you must add this to your spring baking list! Dig into this delicious cherry almond bundt cake recipe made with moist buttermilk cake, tart cherries, and a tasty almond cream glaze. You can’t beat this amazing flavor combo!
Why Cherries and Almonds Go So Well Together
Do you know why the cherries and almonds pair so well together in this sour cherry almond cake? It’s because cherries and almonds are related! Both are part of the genus Prunus which also contains other stone pit fruits such as peaches and apricots. Also, many almond extracts use the pit of cherries and others in the same genus as it tends to taste more like almonds than bitter almonds do. Another reason why this fruity bake will be one of the best cherry bundt cake recipes out there!
The Origin of Bundt Cakes
Two out of three American homes contain a Bundt pan, but how did it become so popular? A man named H. David Dalquist invented the Bundt Pan in 1950 at the request of a women’s Jewish group who wanted to recreate the Kugelhopf cake ( a ring shaped German cake). The name comes from the German word Bund which means “bond” or “alliance.” The pan didn’t become popular until 1966 when a bundt cake won second in a Pillsbury competition. From then on, women were inspired to experiment with bundt cakes and Mr. Dalquist became a widely successful bundt pan maker. Read all about it here!
Cherry Almond Bundt Cake Ingredients
- Cherries: I suggest a tart cherry. The cake is sweet and the glaze is sweet; using a tarter cherry will balance the sweetness in this cherry almond cake. You can use fresh, frozen, or canned just make sure to strain and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Almonds: These are to add a nutty flavor by flavoring the cream glaze and for decoration. Use whatever you think will look pretty on top. I prefer sliced or slivered almonds.
- Almond extract: Can substitute for vanilla extract, however, I would half the amount since we are not looking for a pronounced vanilla flavor.
- Buttermilk: If you do not have buttermilk on hand, you can add a couple drops of lemon juice to whole milk and let it sit for about 15-30 minutes.
Major Allergens Present: Gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts
Equipment Needed
- Hand or stand mixer: A mixer will certainly help produce a fluffier cake. For this you will use the paddle if using a stand mixer and the beaters if using a hand mixer.
- Bundt pan: Mine is 10″ in diameter and 3.5″ deep. Since I do not take chances with bundt pans, I will grease with crisco and coat in flour. There will be no sticking on my watch!
- Cherry pitter: I have done a lot of work with cherries without a pitter, and I would 10/10 recommend getting a pitter. It is a game changer. Although, I suggest putting on a crappy, dark colored shirt because it will look like a murder scene.
How to Make Cherry Almond Bundt Cake:
What is a cherry almond bundt cake made out of?
The main ingredient here are cherries. You want to use a tart or sour cherry to balance out the sweetness of the cake. I always prefer fresh for fruit but you can use frozen or canned in a pinch. If you opt for the frozen or canned make sure to strain and pat dry with a paper towel. For the almond aspect, you’ll need extract for the cake and for the glaze in addition to either sliced or slivered almonds. Just as an FYI; this recipe would make a fantastic dessert for Easter, just sayin.
Make the buttermilk pound cake mix:
This cherry almond bundt cake recipe uses a pound cake recipe with buttermilk and topped with an almond cream glaze. The best part of this recipe is that you can exchange the fruit and flavors for anything you desire.
This part uses a basic creaming method. A creaming method is creaming together the butter and sugar until fluffy. This adds air into the dough formed by the sugar crystals slicing through the butter creating air pockets. Second, the eggs and extracts are added, and finally adding the dry ingredients and liquids (if any) alternately. Many cakes and cookies use this method and is a foundation for baking. Know this method well. The key is to continuously scrape the bowl and attachment(s) before and after each addition of ingredients. This ensures all the ingredients are playing together cohesively.
Pour into the bundt mold and bake:
Prep your bundt pan first by greasing and coating in flour. Pan spraying is not enough, and butter will cause more sticking. Before we add the cherries in, they must be coated in flour. This prevents them from sinking and thus sticking to the pan. However, to make sure there are enough cherries in every bite, I do a layering method. First a third of the batter, then half the cherries, then a third of the batter, then the rest of the cherries and rest of the batter.
Since this bundt cake is pretty tall, this does take about 60-75 minutes to bake. You know it’s done when a knife inserted comes out clean. I wait about 10-15 minutes after taking it out of the oven before I flip and do the big reveal. However, before that, I usually try to loosen the edges first with a small offset spatula. Also, I will light bang the pan on the table to also loosen it up. Then I place a cooling rack over, invert, and hope for the best. If you notice it doesn’t just slip right out, stop pulling off the pan. Gently bang the top and allow gravity to do its job.
Prepare the almond cream glaze:
While that cake is cooling, let’s make this almond glaze! We are going to steep toasted almonds in heavy cream and also use almond extract to flavor. Bring the cream and extract to a boil with the almonds then let it steep off heat for about 30 minutes to infuse. Strain, then we’re just going to mix in powdered sugar until the perfect consistency. If you find it too runny then add more powdered sugar. If you find it too stiff then add more liquid (like cream, water, or almond extract). Cover with plastic wrap on the surface if you’re not using right away.
Finish the cherry almond bundt cake:
Okay so everything has been a great success right!? Cake is out and beautiful and the glaze is ready!? Well let’s finish this sour cherry almond cake. Pour as much or as little glaze as you want. Make sure to do it over a glazing/cooling rack so we don’t have a puddle of glaze on a plate. Top with some fresh cherries and/or toasted almonds and serve with extra cherries.
Help Making The Cherry Almond Bundt Cake Recipe:
How to Prep a Bundt Pan and Remove:
- Take a paper towel and grease up that bundt pan with crisco. Pay extra attention to the inside ring. Do not use butter as it will actually stick more due to the lower melting temperature and different type of fats. Coat with flour by spooning flour in and moving the pan around (over a sink or trash!) until flour has fully coated the pan.
- Always coat the cherries or whatever fruit you’re using in flour. The flour will prevent those cherries from sinking and sticking to the bottom of the pan. Speaking of the fruit, don’t fold into the batter because then you’ll have some touching the edges of the pan causing sticking. Leave a batter buffer in between the pan and cherries by layering batter, sprinkle of cherries, batter, sprinkle of cherries, then batter.
- When the cake comes out of the oven take a small offset spatula and gently attempt to release the sides from the pan including in the inside ring if you can. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so in the pan.
- While still warm, bang it gently on the table to release. Then, place a wire rack on top and invert. If it doesn’t slide right out, give it a slight bang on the table. If it still doesn’t come out let gravity get to work. Let it sit and allow the cake to cool and contract to fall right out.
- Last attempt is to freeze the cake overnight, release the edges from the pan, heat the pan with a flame like a blow torch, then aggressively bang on the table.
Enhancing This Cherry Almond Bundt Cake:
- Replace cherries with chopped apricots and add some lemon zest to the cake batter.
- For more cherry flavor, replace the almond flavored cream with cherry juice.
- Add in some warming spices to the glaze and/or cake batter, like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, to give the cake a more cozy vibe.
How to Store and Freeze the Cherry Almond Bundt Cake:
- Freeze the cake, unglazed and wrapped, for up to 2 months.
- Store cake at room temperature, covered, for up to 5 days.
- Store glaze, separately, in a container with plastic wrap atop the surface, for up to 2 weeks at room temperature, 2 months in the fridge, or 6 months in the freezer.
Troubleshooting the Cherry Almond Bundt Cake:
- My cake stuck to the pan! It happens to the best of us and especially me, but you did not head my warnings about prepping the pan! See my tips for how to prevent this next time and how to remove a super stuck cake 🙂
- All the cherries sunk to the bottom while baking! You did not toss the cherries in flour before baking or you waited to bake after you poured everything in the pan! It’s fine for now if it still came out of the pan, but next time, toss those cherries in flour and bake right away.
Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!
Cherry Almond Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Stand or hand mixer
- 10" x 3.5" Bundt cake pan
- Cherry pitter optional
Ingredients
Buttermilk Cake Batter
- 600 g Tart, fresh cherries Usually 1 grocery store bag. Can also use frozen or canned.
- 268 g Butter, unsalted
- 506 g Granulated sugar
- 4 ea Whole eggs
- 408 g All purpose flour plus extra for coating
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 300 g Buttermilk
- 2 tsp Almond extract
Almond Cream Glaze
- 80 g Heavy cream
- ½ cup Slivered or sliced almonds plus extra for garnish
- 2 tsp Almond extract
- 130 g Powdered sugar
Instructions
To prepare the buttermilk cake batter
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and flour your bundt pan. Pay extra attention to the inside center.
- Reserving a few cherries for garnish, remove the pit and stems and cut in half. Set aside. If using frozen make sure they're thawed and patted dry with a paper towel. If using canned, strain out any juices and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Using your stand mixer and paddle or hand mixer and beaters, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and attachment.
- Lower to speed to medium-low, and add in the eggs with the almond extract. Mix until combined and scrape down the sides of the bowl and attachment.
- Alternately, add in the dry ingredients and buttermilk starting and ending with the dry ingredients (dry, wet, dry, wet, dry). Mix on low speed until a dough a batter comes together.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and attachment(s) and mix for another 30 seconds.
- Toss the cherries in all purpose flour to lightly coat.
- Pour one-third of the batter into the bundt pan. Spoon half of the cherries on top, then cover with another third of batter. Spoon the rest of cherries on top followed by the remaining batter.
- Bake for about 60-75 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before placing a cooling rack on top and inverting to remove the Bundt pan.
- Cool completely before glazing.
To prepare the almond cream glaze
- Toast the almonds until brown. Throw most of them (reserving a small handful for decoration) into a small pot with the cream.
- Bring the cream and almonds to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
- Strain out the almonds and whisk in the extract followed by the powdered sugar. Set aside with a piece of plastic wrap lain over the surface to prevent from drying before use.
To finish the cherry almond bundt cake
- Upend the cake on a glazing/cooling rack.
- Pour the glaze over the cake, transfer to a serving plate or stand, and adorn with toasted almonds and cherries.
Nutrition
Took me a while to figure out how to pronounce this cake but wow is it delicious! I love Cherry and almond together and this is the perfect spring cake!
Thank you so much 🙂
Everything about this Bundt cake was a hit. Texture was smooth and light and the flavor was delicately sweet. Great combination of flavors too. A winner!
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Wow! This recipe is so easy to follow and turned out delicious! It was so balanced, it had the perfect amount of sweet and tart and fresh. It also was so surprisingly light! I can’t rave enough about this cake. .
I was especially impressed with the toasted almond glaze. Don’t skip the step of steeping the toasted almonds in the cream. It added soo much to the overall flavor of the cake.
Not normally one to write reviews but when I saw this recipe only had 2 reviews I knew more people needed to hear about how amazing this recipe is. Bravo 👏🏻
Thank you so much, Abby! I’m glad it turned out amazing 🙂