Not So Vintage Recipe Monday! Cherry Almond Cake

Monday. Ugh!  Guess what it's doing this morning?  SNOWING!  I do not like snow at any time and I loathe snow in March!    Expecting 3-6" before it ends.  Ugh!

This weekend was absolutely beautiful!  My Dear MIL had a very good weekend.  The medication for depression has made quite an improvement.  Usually she will call us around 20-30 times per day crying and asking why we were putting her in a nursing home, why are we moving, etc.. things that we aren't doing, she just imagines them and they are real to her.  This weekend she called us twice.  Once to tell us we left the light on in the barn and the second  to thank me for the cake I brought her.  We go over to her house 4-5 times per day to check on her and she was pulling out oil paints because she wants to paint again.  We love the days when she is happy and secure.

Speaking of cake, I made a wonderful cake this weekend.  Mine is not even close to being as beautiful as the one shown in the recipe, but my family liked it and thought it was pretty too.  I love the aqua and red combination.  I hate that it's sitting on a yellow Tupperware cake plate.  I guess this is considered vintage now because I got it at my wedding shower in 1980!  But I really like how fresh it keeps cakes, so I always use it.

The recipe that I used was from Pinterest and you can find the link to the blog called Sprinkle Bakes.  Heathers blog is beautiful and delicious!  I have definitely bookmarked her!

Her recipe is for a Cherry-Vanilla Layer Cake.

 

 

 

I didn't use her frosting recipe and used different pans , so I called mine the

 

Cherry-Almond Layer Cake.

 

Maraschino Cake:

1/2 c. unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 cups All Purpose flour

1/4 tea. baking powder

1/4 c. whole milk (I used 2%)

1/2 c. maraschino cherry juice

2 tea. Almond extract

2 tbls. flour for sprinkling over the cherries

10 oz. bottle of maraschino cherries, finely chopped

4 egg whites, beaten stiff

 

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour two 8" layer cake pans.

2.  Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.  In a separate bowl. whisk together flour, salt and baking powder.  Combine the milk, cherry juice and almond extract, and add alternately to the butter and sugar with the flour mixture.

3.  In a small bowl, sprinkle the 2 tbls. of flour over the chopped cherries until the flour is completely absorbed.

4.  Stir cherries into batter.

5.  Fold beaten egg whites into batter.  Pour into prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.  Remove from pans and allow to cool completely.

 

Now Heather used a delicious Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting, but I didn't have enough eggs handy to make it so I used:

 

Almond Buttercream Frosting:

 

1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

4 cups confectioners sugar

2 tbls. milk

2 tea. almond extract.

Blue food coloring (opt.)

 

Mix all ingredients together and mix until you get a creamy, spreadable frosting.

 

Frost cake.

It's really easy and very tasty!

 

Hope you have a great Monday!