Old Fashioned Cherry Pound Cake

 

I think you are going to fall in love with this old fashioned cherry pound cake recipe I am sharing with you today. This lovely cake recipe has been in my repertoire for over 40 years now.

Yes, it is coming to you from the pages of my Big Blue Binder, and I can tell you up front it is a real winner of a pound cake!!  If you like pound cake, and you like cherries, you are simply going to adore this cake!!!

 

When my children were growing up this was a cake I would bake for them every year around this time of year. Usually we would enjoy some of it on the day and the rest would be carefully wrapped and frozen for the holidays.

I  no longer remember where I got the recipe from. I suspect it was probably copied down from a magazine, or maybe it came from a friend. Usually though when a friend shared such a recipe with me, I would make a note of who it came from. There is no such note.

It may have come from one of my mother's old cookbooks.  Every time I went home for a visit I would spend a few days copying out recipes from her old books. I especially loved her old Co-op cookbook.

It has a red cover and is fairly falling apart at this stage, being over 70 years old. One of these days I am going to see if I can't borrow it from my sister and copy a few more things from it.  It is pretty much the only cookbook my mother had when we were growing up.

 

  

Mom always said that she wasn't a good cook and she didn't like cooking.  I beg to differ. she may not have liked cooking, but, for the most part, we loved everything she made for us. (roof shingle pork chops aside!)

She was a plain and simple cook, but that was because that is how my father liked his food. Plain and simple.  I do get to cook for him occasionally these days, but my sister mostly does all his cooking.  That suits me to a "T" because I do like to cook a bit beyond plain and simple most days.

 

But you are not here for all that. You are here for Cherry Pound Cake so lets get to it!

This is everything a good pound cake should be.  Pound cake is my favorite type of all the cakes. Dense and delicious.  It is very similar in texture to another favorite cake of mine, the very British Madeira Cake.  You can find my recipe for that here.

  

Pound cake has a long history in North American baking.  It is not called a pound cake because it weighs a pound, although , depending on it's size, it is probably not far short of that.

Rather it is called a pound cake because of the ingredients and measures used.  The recipe for pound cake dates back to the 1700's when cooks relied a great deal on sharing recipes by word of mouth, this is a cake that had all of its ingredients weighed out by a one pound measure. 

 

As with anything, it has changed somewhat through the years. The original cake would have made a LOT of cake.  They tend to be a lot smaller now.  And in the intervening years baking powder has been added to make the cake a tiny bit less dense.

But basically the cake has remained the same, albeit in smaller quantities to this day as it was back then.  This one is especially nice because of the addition of sweet maraschino cherries.

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CHERRY POUND CAKE

These ingredients are hardly any different than they were 300 years ago! 

• butter (I use regular salted as there is no salt in the recipe)
• cream cheese (use the full fat not the light)
• sugar
• vanilla
• large free range eggs
• all purpose plain flour
• baking powder
• maraschino cherries
• chopped toasted walnuts

 

What's not to love about a cake that calls for pretty basic ingredients such as this one. 

With the exception of the maraschino cherries and possibly the cream cheese, you probably have everything you need in your kitchen larder to make this cake today!

 

HOW TO MAKE OLD FASHIONED CHERRY POUND CAKE 

This is probably one of the easiest cakes to make. Its pretty forgiving so long as you don't beat it to death, which might make it a bit tough. 

One key thing to success however is to make sure your eggs, cream cheese, and butter are at room temperature  before you begin. Everything else is a doddle.

 

Generally speaking that is a rule of thumb when making most cakes unless otherwise stated. 

Begin by preheating your oven and preparing your cake tin. I used an 8-inch Bundt tin, but you can use any tube cake tin of the same size.  Butter it really well and dust it with flour, tapping out the excess.

You will want to whisk together your flour and baking powder and set it aside.

 

Drain your cherries and pat them dry with some paper kitchen toweling. Once you have done this, you toss them together with a small amount of flour.  This helps to prevent the cherries from all sinking to the bottom of the cake.

You can do this with either green or red maraschino cherries and in the UK I have made this with glace cherries. The important thing when using glace cherries is to rinse them in warm water and again to pat them dry with some paper towels.

 

You will need to beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar together until it the mixture is light and fluffy. You can also beat in the vanilla at this point.  I use only pure vanilla extract.

You can also add some almond extract if you want to, but I prefer it with just vanilla.

 

You then need to beat in your eggs. I use only free range large eggs for my baking, unless otherwise specified.  I also try to use organic when I can find them.

You will be beating them in  one at a time, making sure that each egg is well incorporated before you add the next one. If your mixture starts to curdle, it is a simple fix by adding a tablespoon of the measured flour to the mix.

 

Once you have the eggs all beaten in, its time to add the flour gradually.  I just add it a little bit at a time, until its all incorporated.

Do not over beat it at this point, but do make sure the flour is evenly distributed. Now you can fold in the floured cherries. If there is any flour left in the bowl of cherries, I just toss it.

 

Scrape the batter into your tin, smooth it out, sprinkle the toasted walnuts evenly over top, and then bung it into the oven.  It will bake for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

You will know it is done when it is well risen and the top springs back when lightly touched. It will also be golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let it cool in the tin for five minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  This is fabulous dusted with icing sugar and cut into thin wedges, served along side hot cups of tea.

 

Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, and as I said, it does freeze very well, which makes it a great make-ahead for the holidays! 

I'm really excited for you to try this cake.  Next to the Victoria Sponge and my mom's Hot Milk Cake it is quite simply my favorite all time cake.  I am sure if you try it, you will agree!  This is one really fab cake!!

Cherry Pound Cake

Yield: 16

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 20 MTotal time: 1 H & 30 M

This is a dense and delicious cake, perfect to enjoy with a hot cuppa. Its quite simply one of my favorite cakes and one which I have been baking for many years. From my Big Blue Binder.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240g) salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 (8 oz/250g) full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 (300g) sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
• 4 large free range eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups (280g) all purpose plain flour (plus an additional 1/4 cup/35g)
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup (250g jar) Maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry
• 1/2 cup (50g) chopped toasted walnuts
• icing sugar to dust (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325*F/165*C/ gas mark 3. Butter an 8-inch tube pan really well and dust with flour, shaking out any excess. Set aside.
2. Toss the cherries together with the 1/4 cup of flour in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Sift together the remaining flour and baking powder
4. Using an electric hand mixer cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar together until light. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure they are completely incorporated before you add the next one. If the mixture starts to curdle, beat in a TBS of the flour.
5. Gradually beat in the flour until thoroughly incorporated at a low speed. Fold in the cherries. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the walnuts on top.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a rack to finish cooling.
7. Dust with icing sugar if desired and serve cut into wedges. Store in an airtight container.

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