amaretto cherry pound cake l bitebymichelle.com

amaretto cherry pound cake

by Michelle

Amaretto Cherry Pound Cake is an old fashioned dense, rich butter cake studded with glacé cherries, golden raisins and infused with amaretto. It’s a lovely addition to a holiday dessert table or serve with coffee for a decadent breakfast.

amaretto cherry pound cake l bitebymichelle.com

Christmas is the only time of year that I do any substantial amount of baking. I love being in my kitchen at home, holiday music blaring and both ovens filled with recipes handed down to me from my grandmothers and my mom. This Amaretto Cherry Pound Cake comes from my mom’s recipe box where only the best recipes live.

Mom is not an adventurous baker. Her recipes are tried, true, never fussy and always delicious.

As with most cake recipes, you’ll want all of your ingredients at room temperature to let you get lots of air whipped into your batter that will then expand in the oven leaving you with a gorgeous cake.

Cold ingredients won’t blend together. They separate, stay lumpy and end in disaster.

I always use large eggs for baking. If I was being super precise, I would weigh them to an exact volume but my grandmothers and mother used large eggs thus so do I.

The wrong egg size will change the liquid ratio which could be catastrophic with too little egg leaving your cake under-leavened and too much egg causing the cake to fall after baking when it can’t support the weight of the extra liquid.

Amaretto Cherry Pound Cake relies on the eggs for leavening [ the rising agent ] so size matters!

I use a three step method to measure flour. First I scoop the flour into the appropriate measuring cup, keeping in mind the difference between liquid and dry measure. Take a flat edged knife and scrape away the excess.

Next I place the flour in a fine mesh sieve and sift it into a mixing bowl.

Third step, I spoon the sifted flour into a measuring cup scraping the top with the flat side of a knife.

amaretto cherry pound cake l bitebymichelle.com

To keep your cherries and raisins from sinking to the bottom of the cake, Mom saves a half cup of the measured flour to toss with the fruit.

The flour coats the dried fruit helping it to stay suspended throughout the cake batter.

amaretto cherry pound cake l bitebymichelle.com

Amaretto Cherry Pound cake requires patience.

  • Take the time to allow your eggs and butter to warm up. Microwaved butter won’t cream properly.
  • Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy which could be anywhere from 3 – 7 minutes depending on the power of your mixer
  • Add the flour on low speed.
  • Fold the fruit in by hand using a rubber spatula making sure that you get all of the batter involved.
  • Be sure to grease and flour your bundt pan thoroughly to allow for easier decanting.
  • Allow the cake a slow and low bake.
  • Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the cake pan on a cooling rack before running a butter knife around the inside and outside edges of the cake. Then turn the cake over and pop it out of the pan.
  • Place the cake on a parchment lined cooling rack to cool completely. This could take 2 – 3 hours.

I usually give the pan a confident whack on the counter to coax the cake out.

amaretto cherry pound cake l bitebymichelle.com

Cool your Amaretto Cherry Pound Cake completely then wrap it in clean Amaretto soaked cheesecloth then wrap it again in film wrap then again in aluminium foil and store it in the fridge until needed.

Moisten your Amaretto Cherry Pound Cake with a pastry brush dipped in amaretto when the cheesecloth feels dry.

Love to hear how your cake turns out. Leave a message in the comments.

Thanks for reading. xo

Rating: 5.0/5
( 2 voted )

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups golden raisins
2 cups glacé cherries

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven 300*F
  2. Grease and flour bundt pan.
  3. Whether you're using a stand mixer or a hand held, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy [ 3 - 7 minutes ].
  4. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition.
  5. Once all 4 eggs are incorporated, use a rubber spatula to scrape down the batter from the sides of the bowl.
  6. Take 1/2 cup flour from the measured 2 cups and toss with raisins and cherries. Set aside
  7. Blend remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour and salt into egg mixture until well combined.
  8. Fold floured fruit mixture in by hand until you see no trace of flour.
  9. Spoon into prepared cake pan and place on bottom shelf of preheated oven.
  10. Check cake for doneness at 1 hour 20 minutes with a long skewer or piece of dry linguine. It may take an additional 10 minutes depending on how true your oven is.
  11. Remove cake from oven to a cooling rack. Leave in the pan for 10 minutes then loosen inside and outside edges with a butter knife.
  12. Invert cake over a piece of parchment or waxed paper. You may need to give it a quick whack on the counter to have it release.
  13. Place the cake right side up on parchment or waxed paper lined cooling rack.
  14. Allow to cool completely up to 3 hours.
  15. Place 1/3 - 1/2 cup amaretto in a small bowl.
  16. Cut a piece of clean cheesecloth large enough to completely wrap your cake.
  17. Unfold the cheesecloth so that it is only doubled and place in amaretto. Once the amaretto is completely soaked into the cloth, spread the cloth over the same size piece of film wrap.
  18. Place the cooled cake on the cheesecloth and wrap up like a present.
  19. Wrap again with the film wrap and once more with aluminium foil or place in a container with a lid.
  20. Store in fridge until ready to serve.

Notes

THE LOVE: Check your cake every week to make sure the cheesecloth is still slightly damp. If it's dry, use a pastry brush dipped in amaretto to moisten it.