Old fashioned cherry coffee cake with fresh cherries, or you can use frozen sweet cherries! Cinnamon cherry coffee cake with crumb topping is the best brunch treat! You'll love this recipe for a cherry coffee cake!
To make cherry filling, combine all filling ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat.
3 cups dark sweet cherries, ½ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoon cornstarch, ½ teaspoon almond extract, ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ cup water
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.
To make the crumb topping, combine cold butter, sugars, flour, and salt in a bowl.
⅔ cup light brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated sugar, 1 cup all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ cup unsalted butter
Blend with a fork, pastry cutter, or your hands until the mixture resembles large crumbs. Mix in sliced almonds. Set aside in refrigerator to chill.
½ cup sliced almonds
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan or 9×9 square baking pan with baking spray and line with parchment paper. If using a square pan, leave an overhang to allow for easy removal of the cake.
baking spray
In a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
¼ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup light brown sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter
Mix in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and almond extracts.
3 large eggs, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon almond extract
Mix in vegetable oil, followed by sour cream.
3 tablespoon vegetable oil, ¾ cup sour cream
Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and fold in until just combined.
2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
Scrape ⅓ of batter into prepared pan and set aside.
Spread cooled cherry filling evenly onto the center of the batter in the pan, leaving an inch border around the edges.
Top with remaining cake batter and spread to evenly cover cherry filling. Sprinkle crumb topping on top.
Bake cake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of the cake comes out clean and crumbs on top are golden brown. Allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
If desired, dust powdered sugar over cooled cake before serving.
powdered sugar
Video
Notes
Tips to get your ingredients to room temperature quickly:For eggs, just submerge them in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 15 minutes. For sour cream, just place it in a microwave-safe mug and heat for 5 seconds at a time, stirring in between. Keep going until your sour cream is room temperature. And for butter, heat your butter, wrapped, on a microwave-safe plate for 20 seconds, rotating each every 4 seconds.