Looking for a fun flavor of cake to switch it up instead of a traditional chocolate or vanilla? Well, this is THAT cake! My cherry chip cake is probably what I’m most “famous” for in my family. It’s what I make for everyone’s birthday. I’ve been making it ever since I was a little girl. However, I used to make it back then with a boxed cake mix. (That is a sin to me now, haha!) The boxed cake mix became discontinued so I was then “forced” to make my own. Now it’s more delicious than ever! Learn how to make this delicious, flavorful, and moist cake down below!
How to Make Cherry Chip Cake:
Step 1: Prep Ingredients
Whisk dry ingredients: Cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt.
-Use cake flour, it makes this cake light and fluffy, all-purpose flour would result in a denser cake.
Buttermilk Mixture: Whisk 1 1/3 cup buttermilk and 5 tablespoons of reserved maraschino cherry juice. The juice gives the cake a great cherry flavor as well as a beautiful bubblegum pink color.
Step 2: Drain, Stem, and Chop Cherries
The most time consuming part of this cake is cutting up the cherries, when I first made this cake I was too lazy to get my food processor out of the box, so I opted to cut them myself. IT TOOK FOREVER. Trust me if you have a food processor, use it; it takes 30 seconds with the food processor! If not, give the cherries the best mince you can, just know you might have some bigger chunks if you’re not using a food processor which is okay.
Important: Remember to save the cherry juice! It’s flavor heaven for this cake!
Step 3: Cream Butter & Sugar
Cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, then add eggs in one at a time and combine on a low speed. Add in extracts and give a light stir until incorporated.
Step 4: Alternate Flour & Buttermilk
While mixer is on low, add a little of the flour and buttermilk then mix, continue adding small increments until the rest is incorporated into the batter.
Step 5: Fold in cherries, see how tiny they are!
Step 6: Pour into Prepared Cake Pans & Bake
Grease cake pans with butter or Crisco. (I use Crisco) Then, flour them. For a full proof way to make sure your cake does not stick to the pan: I would cut out a piece of parchment paper to fit exactly into the bottom of your pans. I always do this to ensure my cakes come out easily from the cake tins. Who wants to go through all the work of making a homemade cake and then have it stick to the bottom? Not me!
Tip: When baking cakes there tends to be a dome on top which isn’t ideal for stacking and icing. Your cake could crack in half and it could become a real mess, trust me. Either 1) trim the domes off the top of your cakes once they are cooled or 2) Buy these baking strips, they come in handy. It’s pretty much a piece of fabric that you soak in cold water and wrap around the cake tin to even out the baking process, which results in flat even layers. I love using them, I never need to carve my cakes. NOTE: When using these cake strips on other cake recipes the bake time may be longer so just watch your cakes and use a toothpick to make sure the center is done!
How to Make Almond Buttercream Frosting:
Super easy buttercream recipe! Just cream up your room temperature butter until smooth, about 30 seconds. Then, add the rest of the ingredients: sifted powdered sugar, heavy cream, almond and vanilla extracts. Why almond buttercream? Well, for one it’s delicious. But, this may sound odd but almond extract smells and tastes just like cherries. So it works!
Cherry Chip Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
Cherry Chip Cake
- 2 cups (226 grams) cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 10 ounce jar maraschino cherries
- ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites at room temperature
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cup (315 ml) buttermilk
- 5 tbsp maraschino cherry juice
Almond Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 4 cups (900 grams) powdered sugar sifted
- ¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cherry Chip Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 8-inch cake tins with butter or vegetable shortening and flour, line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Whisk cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl, set aside.
- Drain cherries, reserve the juice, and remove stems from cherries. With a food processor or with a sharp knife chop cherries until fine; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until light an fluffy (about 3 minutes.) Then, add eggs in one at a time. Next, add in vanilla and almond extracts and mix on low until combined.
- Add five tablespoons of reserved maraschino cherry juice with buttermilk and whisk until fully incorporated.
- Spoon in about ¼ of the dry ingredients and pour ¼ of buttermilk mixture into the mixer. Mix until fully incorporated. Repeat by adding the remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk in small additions until all is incorporated, then beat for about one minute.
- Pour batter evenly into cake pans and bake about 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick from the center comes out with a few crumbs. Let cakes cool in pans for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack, then remove cakes from pans and finish cooling cakes on a wire rack.
Almond Buttercream
- Cream room temperature butter on medium high in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Beat until light and fluffy, about one minute. Scrape down the bowl and add the rest of the ingredients: powdered sugar, heavy cream, almond and vanilla extracts. Whip on medium high until fluffy and a spreadable consistency.
Assemble Cake
- On a large plate or a cake board, place your first cake layer down. (If there is a dome on top of your cake, level with a serrated knife) Spread ⅓ of the buttercream evenly on top of the first cake layer. Top with the second cake layer and frost with remaining buttercream. Garnish with cherries if desired. Let sit in fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm and serve!