This cherry almond bundt cake is a showstopper, featuring a moist and tender crumb filled with juicy cherries and buttery almond flavor. With a velvety cherry glaze on top, this gorgeous pink cake is perfect for any occasion, but especially Valentine’s Day!
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Why I Love This Cherry Almond Bundt Cake
This is a gold-star recipe if you want to impress your friends and family but also don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen! This is one of my go-to dessert recipes I can always count on. It looks like it’s from a fancy bakery and tastes like it, too! Here’s why I’m in love with this cake:
- Flavorful: Like most bundt cakes, this cake is buttery and dense. Packed with lots of sweet almond flavor and juicy maraschino cherries, each bite is better than the last!
- Easy: This cherry almond bundt cake recipe is great for beginner bakers. Just combine the batter, pour it into your bundt pan, and bake.
- Colorful: Lots of cherries add pops of red to the cake itself and then we top it with a vibrant pink almond-cherry glaze.
- Party Perfect: This bundt cake is a great make-ahead cake to impress your guests. It stays moist for days and travels easily!
If you love making bundt cakes, make sure to also check out my chocolate milk bundt cake, sweet banana bundt cake and these mini pumpkin bundt cakes!
Key Ingredients
Almond paste has a subtle, delicate flavor that pairs beautifully with the chewy cherries’ sweetness. Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this cherry almond bundt cake recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Maraschino cherries: These are often canned or jarred, you will use both the cherries themselves and the juice they are in. If you have any left over, use them to make the very best cherry cheesecake tacos!
- All-Purpose Flour: Avoid cake flour. You need all-purpose flour for a slightly dense crumb.
- Almond Paste: Almond paste is not the same as marzipan, but you can substitute it if desired.
- Almond Extract: This combined with the almond paste is what gives the cake its signature almond flavor. Don’t skip it!
- Milk: I used whole milk to keep the cake moist, however any type of milk will work. Buttermilk can also be used if you happen to have some on hand!
How To Make Cherry Almond Cake
It’s just like making your favorite vanilla cake, but with lots of almond goodness and sweet cherries added. Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions.
- Prep the cherries: Remove the cherries from their juice and reserve the juice for later. Chop the cherries and set them aside.
- Dry ingredients: Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Wet ingredients: Beat the butter, almond paste, and sugar together until combined in a separate bowl. Add in the eggs, almond extract, and vanilla extract.
- Combine: Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, alternating with adding milk and cherry juice. Stir just until the batter comes together and then fold in the cherries.
- Bake it: Pour the batter into a greased 10-inch bundt pan. Bake it on the middle rack until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool for 15 minutes, before transferring it to a wire rack or serving plate to cool completely before frosting.
- Make the glaze: Whisk all of the glaze ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle it over the cooled cake. Slice, serve and watch how quickly this bundt cake disappears!
Chef’s Tips and Variations
- Use simple pans: Try to use a bundt pan with a simple design. While complex designs are pretty, they make it easier for the cake to stick even if you grease the pan.
- Use the middle rack: Never bake a cake on the top or bottom rack. The top is too cool and the cake will take longer, whereas the heat in the bottom is too strong and direct (so it’ll likely burn). Always bake in the center rack for best results.
- Cover it: If the top of your cherry almond cake browns on top too quickly, cover it lightly with foil for the remaining baking time to prevent burning. Check in around the 20 to 40 minute mark!
- Don’t open the oven: Once it’s in the oven, try not to open the door because it lowers the oven’s temperature every time. This means the baking time gets longer and can result in a dry or overcooked cake.
- Let it cool: Don’t add the glaze while the cake’s still hot or even slightly warm. Doing so will cause the glaze to melt off the cake!
Test Kitchen Review
See what our test kitchen had to say!
Haley
This cake was the hit of our Valentine’s Day! The moist and sweet cake had a great almond flavor! Next time I will add about 1/4 cup more cherries, as the chewy cherries are my husband’s favorite. I did lightly cover the cake with foil half way through baking and it turned out perfect!
Yield: 10 servings
Cherry Almond Bundt Cake
This moist Cherry Almond Bundt Cake recipe with juicy cherries, sweet almond paste, and a smooth cherry glaze is perfect for any occasion!
Ingredients
- 1 (16 oz) jar maraschino cherries
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 oz almond paste
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tablespoons reserved cherry juice
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Instructions
- Remove cherries from juice, saving the juice for later use in this recipe, and chop cherries. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with baker's joy non-stick spray, or butter and flour it. Set aside.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In stand mixer, cream together the butter, almond paste and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the almond extract and vanilla extract.
- Beat in the flour mixture alternately with milk and 1/2 cup cherry juice that you saved from earlier, mixing until combined. Fold in chopped cherries. Pour batter into pan.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes and invert on a wire rack or serving plate. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting. Check on the cake about halfway through the baking time. If it is already a golden brown, cover the top of the bundt pan lightly with a piece of foil. This will prevent the cake from over-browning as it bakes.
- For glaze: Whisk together powdered sugar, almond extract and cherry juice until smooth. If too thick, add more cherry juice as needed. Drizzle on top of the cooled cake and serve!
Notes
Store: Store the cake at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Freeze: Wrap each slice or chunk in plastic wrap twice. Transfer it to freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Cake will freeze and thaw best without the glaze on top, but the glaze can be frozen. It just may not be as pretty once thawed.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 slice, Calories: 668kcal, Carbohydrates: 106g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 24g, Saturated Fat: 13g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 8g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 125mg, Sodium: 241mg, Potassium: 140mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 74g, Vitamin A: 716IU, Vitamin C: 0.01mg, Calcium: 129mg, Iron: 3mg
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I made this cake for a party and it was so delicious, I love cherries and the glaze made the cake so beautiful and tasty. I will be making this again this recipe is great.
Cherry Almond Bundt cake is a disaster! Bottom stayed in the pan . Still glazed it. Crumbled when cut into. Very disappointed!!! Flavor is tasty. Very unappealing looking.
Hi Cindy! Did you spray the pan well with baker’s joy (the baking non-stick spray) or butter and flour the pan well before adding the batter? This should prevent the cake from sticking. I’m sorry you ran into issues!
Baked for my son’s birthday! Tasted fabulous, however, definitely to dry. Got very brown & crusted. Next time, I will try a little more milk/cherry juice. And maybe foil over top last 15-30mins of baking!
Can’t wait to try some of the other flavors!!!
I baked it for an hour and it could be baked a little less. It’s not bad just a little dry.
I’m baking the cake right now and it smells awesome! Also, tasted the batter. I love almond paste in recipes and just love almond flavored cakes. This sounds like a keeper!
Made this cake today for my family. Baked in a convection oven at 325 for 60 minutes, perfect. The cake is really good but a bit to sweet for my taste. Next time I will cut back on the sugar by 1/2 cup. With the sugar, almond paste and cherry juice just to much sweetness.
Looks really good and is in the oven now. Has been cooking for 30 minutes and already very dark on the top! But giggly in the center. Definitely not done. I turned the oven down to 325 to continue cooking and will let you know how it turns out. I may have to cut off the bottom like the other person did. If so no big deal! My husband loves cherries and almond flavoring! Fingers crossed!
Mine turned out on the dry side. Overbaked?
This is just a beautiful cake. My son loves cherries….but is allergic to almonds. Would the consistency be alright without the almond paste?
I tried this recipie yesterday and I live in Western Canada at higher altitude. I used a silicone bundt pan. It ended up needing to be cooked for almost 2 hours. It was not even close to being done at 70 minutes. That ended up burning the bottom so I cut it off afterwards and it was still delicious! Definitely a keeper! It was so good! I also just made my own almost paste instead of purchasing, it’s super easy!
Thanks for the recipie!
Is there anything that can be used instead of almond paste? Thanks!
This is such a beautiful cake and great for the cherry lover.
He doesn’t like cherries?!? Well, I will gladly eat his share the next time you make this! Sounds fabulous.
This looks wonderful! I can’t wait to try it. Where do you buy almond paste? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at the grocery store.
I love the color! And the cherries are adorable. I’ve only dropped one dessert so far and I’m scared for life. 🙂
I could eat a jar of maraschino cherries! I love those things!
This cake has to be AWESOME!! The good thing….you didn’t drop it before you got to take the pictures! LOL I must say, I think I would have salvaged the part that didn’t hit the floor. 🙂
Pinning this!!
Such a beautiful cake!! And seriously so sad that you dropped it 🙁
This is beautiful!! I can’t imagine how good it tastes–dropping it must have been a travesty 🙂
What a pretty cake! Love the combination of cherries + almond, that’s a classic 🙂