Tender, moist almond coffee cake loaded with fresh cherries crowned with a crunchy, sweet crumb topping and drizzled with a sweet almond glaze. A delicious way to enjoy those gorgeous cherries that are only at the market for a short time.

I bought a bag of dark, red, juicy Utah cherries at the supermarket, but my family was busy, and the cherries just sat untouched in the refrigerator. I definitely didn’t want to waste those gorgeous cherries, so I decided to bake with them.

My lemon blueberry coffee cake is a fantastic coffee cake, and one of my most popular recipes right now. I used that batter for the base, but switched out the lemon flavor for almond. My husband loves the combination of cherries and almond.

I decided an almond cake needed almonds in the streusel topping as well, so I added sliced almonds to the streusel topping.

Then for a final layer of almond, I add a little bit of almond extract to the glaze. I thought a cherry coffee cake would be fun with a pink glaze, but I added way more pink gel coloring than I had planned and my icing was neon pink. Which looked fine on a slice, but was a bit much on an entire coffee cake.

I’d recommend using just a drop of red food coloring, or omitting the food coloring all together. Although, no one at my house even commented on the bright pink color, they just gobbled it up in a flash.

Yield: 12 servings

Cherry Almond Streusel Coffee Cake

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Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and quartered
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a 9" springform pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
2. Prepare crumb topping and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, almond extract and milk. Add flour mixture and mix just until combine. Stir in cherries.
5. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
6. Bake at 350º for 40 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Crumb Topping

1. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter. Mix until mixture is crumbly. Stir in sliced almonds.

Icing

1. Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a thin glaze.