Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake

Any bake sale you need to tackle this summer? Then I suggest this Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake. This is a pretty simple recipe, the only thing that you have to in advance is the cherry filling. Other than that, the whole cake won’t take you half a day to finish. I don’t know if I made a big boo-boo by using whole wheat pastry flour in the making, but I just realized that while preparing this cake I run out of all-purpose flour. The first thing that popped in my mind was the pastry flour, even though I have cake flour. I decided to use 1 cup of the pastry flour to replace half of the all-purpose flour and worried about the result later. The cake turned out just fine and the crumbs actually are tender and moist. The color is slightly off for the cake, because the pastry flour was whole wheat, but the taste are good. Some people might look down on my mistake, but I didn’t regret it at all It’s all new discovery for me.

The filling in the original recipe called for frozen sour cherries but I still had leftover cherries soaked in kirsch from making Black Forest cake, so I used them in this cake. I wouldn’t know for a million that they would taste good as a filling in coffee cake hadn’t I tried it.

I’m in the mood of baking and writing this week, especially since I’m on summer break. My work finished on Tuesday and altough I’ve been mostly home this week, I’m liking it because I have time to do things I’ve neglected while I’m working. But I’m still not in the mood of working in my yard. If I have to choose hard between yard work and baking, I give my heart 100% to baking! I love pretty flowers and the like but I don’t understand why weeds keep coming back even though I’ve pulled them million times before Hopefully in the coming weeks I have the courage to kill some weeds…

Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake

Yields one 9-inch tube cake

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Cherries in Kirsch (recipe follows), or 1 cup frozen sour cherries, thawed and drained well

1/3 cup slivered almonds

Milk Glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Butter a 9-inch tube pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Spoon about half the batter into the prepared pan. Arrange the cherries in a single layer on top of the batter; avoid placing any cherries against the pan’s edge, as they may stick or burn if not fully encased in batter. Top with the remaining batter, making sure it is evenly distributed, and smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle the almonds evenly over the top of batter.

Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched, 40-45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet, and let the cake cool 10 to 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack, then reinvert (so almond side is up), and let cool completely. Spoon the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Let the cake sit until the glaze is set, about 5 minutes, before serving. Cake can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 4 days.