When you have beautiful, in-season cherries, you need to make a delicious cherry cake.

I've been quite disappointed with the cherry cakes at my local bakeries. They are usually bright pink and filled with overly sweet maraschino cherries, which is not what I personally desire in a cherry cake. In my recipe, I replaced the bright red maraschino cherries with in-season sweet cherries. By using fresh cherries, the cake obtains a wonderful cherry flavor without becoming excessively sweet. The addition of chopped walnuts is a delightful bonus that adds a pleasant textural contrast to the moist, cherry-studded cake.

Cherry Walnut Cake

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

2 cups granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, room temp

½ cup buttermilk

3 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp kosher salt

2 ½ tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 cups sweet cherries, pitted and quartered

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°F and thoroughly grease a Bundt pan with cooking spray. 

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and kosher salt. Once mixed, put aside. 

Prep your cherries by pitting and quartering them. Coat the cherries with a tablespoon of flour and put aside. 

In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat one egg at a time into the sugar mixture until they are all incorporated, add the vanilla. 

On slow speed of the stand mixer, add the flour mixture into the batter a ¼ cup at a time alternating with a little bit of the buttermilk. Keep adding both in slowly until there is no more flour and buttermilk. 

With a rubber spatula, fold in the cherries and walnuts until they are evenly distributed.

Scoop the batter into your prepared Bundt pan. Smooth out the top making sure the batter is evenly distributed in the pan.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before releasing. 

Release the cake by running a knife along the edges of the cake and then give the pan a shake until you hear the cake thud against the pan.

Transfer the cake to a cake stand or plate and top with sugar icing or powdered sugar.

Slice and enjoy. This cake is great to share with family and friends with a hot cup of coffee.

*Notes: 

It’s important to coat your cherries with flour, it prevents the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake. That way you’ll have evenly distributed cherries throughout your cake. 

The size of your cherries is also important. You want to make sure that you do quarter the cherries and they are approximately the same size. That way you can ensure that they will cook in your cake evenly. You don’t want to cut your cake and find a partially cooked cherry. 

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can easily substitute it with milk.