This easy cherry cake is made completely from scratch using fresh cherries and pantry staples. Serve it warm for breakfast, brunch, midafternoon snack, or as an after-dinner dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! This is the best homemade summer cake to make during the cherry season! Your family will love it and it might become your new favorite sweet treat!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cherry cake, fresh cherry cake
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Total Time 1 hourhour20 minutesminutes
Servings 10people
Calories 221kcal
Author Julia
Ingredients
1 ½cupsall-purpose flour(or use gluten-free measure-for-measure flour - King Arthur brand)
Use a 3-inch springform pan or a 9-inch round cake pan.
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Grease the sides and the bottom of the pan with butter. Line the bottom of a 9x3-inch springform pan (or 9 inch round cake pan) with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper too.
Combine the dry ingredients together - Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, together into a medium bowl.
In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients together. Beat butter, sugar, and 2 eggs until very light in color and fluffy, 2-3 minutes on high speed. Add vanilla and Greek yogurt and continue beating until very creamy and light in color, for about 1 more minute.
Now combine the dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Keeping the mixer speed low, mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until combined. Do not overmix.
Transfer half of the cake batter to the springform pan. Top with sliced cherries. Top with the remaining half of the cake batter. Top with more cherries. To get a better visual idea, refer to the step-by-step photos in this recipe post by scrolling up above this recipe card.
Bake until the cake turns golden, and the tester comes out clean in the center, about 45 minutes or 1 hour, depending on your oven.
Midway through baking, I like to put some extra cherries (pitted) on top of the cake for prettiness and return the cake to baking. Again, please refer to the step-by-step photos in this recipe post by scrolling up above this recipe card.
When the cake is done baking, let it cool (still in the baking pan) on a wire rack. After the cake has cooled for about 40 minutes, release the cake from the springform pan.
Notes
Best cherries to use. Use dark fresh sweet cherries that are firm in texture. Do not use frozen or canned cherries. Sour (tart) cherries won't work in this recipe, either.
Use a cherry pitter (that you can buy on Amazon) to pit the cherries. Slice each pitted cherry in half.
Greek yogurt adds a tang and moist texture to the cake. I love baking with Greek yogurt and avoid using as much butter as I can get away with by replacing some of it with Greek yogurt. In this recipe, you'll be using 2 oz of softened butter and ½ cup Greek yogurt to produce a full-size 9-inch diameter cake. Not too much butter, yet the texture does not suffer.
Use a scale to measure flour or aerate the flour well. Aerate the flour by fluffing it with a spoon and adding it into your measuring cup with the spoon instead of just packing the flour into the cup. This will prevent the flour from overpacking. Overpacking the flour results in a denser cake texture.
Do not overmix the cake batter. Be sure to combine the liquid and dry cake batter ingredients thoroughly without overmixing. Overmixing will result in a dense texture.
Halfway through baking, add extra fresh cherries (pitted) on top of the cake for presentation purposes, and return the cake to baking.
Make this cherry cake gluten-free. I have tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten-Free flour and it worked great! Just follow the recipe as is.
Helpful step-by-step photos are provided in this recipe post if you scroll up above the recipe card.