This easy cherry cake recipe is so easy to make and so delicious you’d want to bake it all summer long. Dense but soft, not too sweet, bursting with wonderful cherry flavour.
(Take advantage of cherry season and make some mini cherry galettes. Buttery, flaky crust. Plump, juicy, sweet cherries. It’s your favourite summer pie without all the work. This chocolate cherry bundt cake is easy to make and looks stunning!)
If you’re looking for a quick, simple, delicious cake to serve and snack on this summer, you’ve come to the right place!
No bells and whistles (or frosting and filling) on this one. Just the season’s best fresh sweet cherries, simple pantry ingredients, half an hour in the oven, done.
This cherry cake from scratch goes so well with your morning coffee, great for picnics and is perfect with ice cream.
How to make this easy cherry cake recipe
To make this homemade cherry cake, you start by sifting flour with baking powder and salt. You set that aside while you cream butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
Then in goes the egg, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix until incorporated. Gradually add your flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Transfer the batter into your prepared pan and place cherries on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack. Sprinkle some powdered sugar or top with ice cream and enjoy!
Ingredients
Like I said earlier, there are no hard-to-source ingredients in this easy cherry cake recipe. All you need are the following pantry staples:
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla extract
- Cherries
Baking tools
You don’t need special tools either. I like using my stand mixer
but a large bowl + a handheld electric mixer
would work just as well too.
In addition, you need:
I like using a bench scraper
to cut sheet cakes but a knife will do too.
Recipe FAQs
To make this super easy recipe for cherry cake even easier, here are some tips for you.
This recipe only needs ½ cup of buttermilk and if you’re like me and can only buy it in 1L bottles, you need to plan out your week and make all things buttermilk (here’s a great collection of recipes to help you use that leftover buttermilk).
Or, you can make buttermilk at home so you have just the right amount you need.
It’s so simple: I just mix a cup of milk and a tablespoon of lemon juice, stir then let it sit in room temperature for 30 minutes.
Homemade buttermilk doesn’t get quite as thick as the one you buy at the store though. Good news is I haven’t noticed a significant difference in my baking yet. So I don’t hesitate to make homemade buttermilk in a pinch.
Here’s an interesting read on commercial vs. homemade buttermilk, if you’re curious.
I love cherries – eating them fresh and baking with them (or making homemade roasted cherry chocolate ice cream – so good!).
Over the years (and countless days of cherry red hands later) I’ve realized that a cherry pitter
might be one of the best inventions of mankind ever.
Invest in one and you won’t look back.
If you don’t have one though, there are many ways to pit a cherry. From using a straw (didn’t work for me) to using a paper clip (this one hurt!). Here’s one using a piping/icing tip (I haven’t tried this but it looks very promising).
See what method works best for you (or invest in a pitter already!).
If you want to avoid all that drama altogether, you might be wondering if you can just use frozen cherries for this recipe. The answer is you can.
When cherries are $1 a basket, we tend to hoard buy more than normal people would and freeze them ourselves so we can have cherry parties all year.
When the craving hits and I want to bake cherry cake from scratch, I simply thaw them in the fridge.
I just make sure to remove any excess moisture before I use them so my cake doesn’t end up being too mushy.
You can store this cherry buttermilk cake in an airtight container in the fridge. It will be good for up to 2 days.
We like eating this cake chilled too so we don’t usually bring it down to room temperature before serving.
Other cake recipes that are easy to make from scratch
If there are no cherries available there yet or – gasp – you missed cherry season, here are other cakes you can bake that are just as easy and delicious.
This sour cream peach cake also uses a favourite summer fruit. Delicious, fruity, will definitely give you all the summer feels.
It can’t get any simpler than this easy yogurt cake. Top it with fresh strawberries (or your favourite berry) and cream for a fantastic summer dessert.
Not in a baking mood? This strawberry refrigerator cake is for you. Fresh, refreshing, great way to stay cool on a warm sunny day!
Easy Cherry Cake Recipe from Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 pc large egg room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 lb fresh sweet cherries pitted and halved
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper with slight overhang on each side. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift 1 ½ cups all purpose flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt. Set aside.
- Using a handheld electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream 6 tbsp of butter with ¾ cup of sugar until light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes on medium-high speed).
- Then in goes the egg, ½ cup buttermilk and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
- Switch the mixer to low speed and gradually add your flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Remember to scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl.
- Transfer your batter into your prepared pan and smoothen the top with a spatula. Place cherries on top (you may want to lightly press some of the cherries into the batter) and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Place the pan on a wire rack to cool. Serve with a dusting of confectioner's sugar or a scoop of ice cream.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only.
Happy baking!
Did you make this easy recipe for cherry cake? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Marisa F. Stewart
Love the idea of the cherries!! It would be great for the Fourth with a dollop of whipped cream. Easy desserts recipes are great to have on hand. I’ll be pinning this recipe.
Lois Christensen
Love easy recipes! This one sounds perfect for me.
Veena Azmanov
Delicious, easy and quick. Love the cherries to making it more special.
Gloria
When I was a kid, my aunt had an orchard. We would spend lots of time there in the summer. Cherries we so good. As I picked them, I also ate them. This is a great recipe to showcase these delicious gems.
Jolina
Nice! I’d love to go cherry-picking this summer…
Holly
Ooh…delicious! I love cherry cake! I’m definitely going to give this a try!
Rosey
Now this is my kind of recipe. And yes, I would be picking up my morning coffee to go with!!
Christa
This looks so delicious! As much as I love sweets, I’m not a huge fan of the icing on cake. This is such a perfect recipe for me to try.
Jolina
Perfect! This cake really needs no icing…though maybe ice cream… 🙂
Courtney
Ooooo who knew such a yummy cake would be so easy to make?!?? Definitely need to make this for the family! Delicious
Pooja
I love cherry cake and making one at home would be amazing. Can’t wait to try this!
Aisasami
This looks super yummy. I have to make this for my coworkers as they love sweets.
Karen Monica
I love easy recipes and cherry cake is also my favourite. I would love to try and make this. Hopefully the one I make will look and taste as yummy as this.
Chad
This cake looks so delicious! I can’t wait to bake it next week. Thanks a lot. c
Bree
This does look so easy to make! And wow does it look amazing! My kids love anything with cherry so I cant wait to make this for them!
Neely Moldovan
These does sound even easy enough for me to do! Totally going to try this!
Stephanie
I am not a cherry person, but my husband would absolutely love this! I like that there’s no filling or frosting, and it’s a simple recipe. I have everything at home except for the cherries, so we will have to try this soon.
Jolina
Awesome! We’re starting to see cherries in the stores…