I recently had some friends over and wanted to serve a nice dessert (and, of course, I wanted to make a hundred-year-old recipe), so I pulled out my 1925 recipe books and found a lovely recipe for Maraschino Cherry Cake.
The cake was colorful with cherry fragments throughout that gave it a delightful sweet, yet tart, flavor.
Here’s the original recipe:
This recipe calls for 1 cup of liquid. When, I made it, I used 1/4 cup of liquid from a jar of Maraschino cherries and 3/4 cup of milk.
The stores where I shop do not carry pastry flour, so I used all-purpose flour. It worked fine.
When I updated this recipe, I reduced the amount of baking powder from 4 teaspoons to 3 teaspoons. Four teaspoons seems like a lot, and I had a little difficulty with the cake falling. A possible cause is the use of too much baking powder, so I decided to reduce the amount.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Maraschino Cherry Cake
4 egg whites
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup liquid from jar of Maraschino cherries
3/4 milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups pastry (or all-purpose) flour
1/2 cup Maraschino cherries, chopped
Preheat oven to 350◦ F. Beat egg whites until stiff, then set aside.
Put butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, then cream. Stir in Maraschino cherry liquid and milk. Add salt, baking powder, and flour; beat until smooth. Stir in the chopped Maraschino cherries, then fold in the beaten egg whites. Put into prepared pans. A large loaf pan, round layer cake pans, or a rectangular cake pan may be used. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 35 minutes for cake pans or 45 minutes for a loaf pan). If desired, ice. (I iced the cake with a buttercream frosting. I substitute liquid from a jar of Maraschino cherries for some of the milk when making the frosting.)
I’ll bet this cherry cake was SO good–sweet and delicious!
It has a nice flavor.
That looks so tempting!
It’s yummy.
It makes a really pretty cake. Hope everyone enjoyed it.
The cake was a hit. You can’t see it on the photo I posted, but when I served the cake I put several Maraschino cherries with stems on top of the cake to decorate it. It made a nice presentation.
The cake looks very pretty.
Thank you!
This looks lovely, and the cherries didn’t sink!
The batter was very thick. That may have helped keep the cherries distributed throughout the cake.
I have always put maraschino cherries in the ” to use to decorate” category of food and goodies…
I also generally put Maraschino cherries in the “use to decorate” category, though I’ve come across several old recipes in the process of doing this blog that call for using them as a main ingredient. One old recipe, a recipe for Maraschino Cherry Ice Cream, has become one of my all-time favorite recipes. I first posted the recipe in 2016, and I think that I’ve made it at least once each year every year since then. It’s tasty, very easy to make, and has a nice consistency (and doesn’t get too hard when the ice cream that isn’t eaten right away and is stored in the freezer).
It looks delicious and the cherries give the cake a very nice colour.
The small bits of the cherries do give the cake a nice bright look.
Sheryl, have you read the mystery series, A Below Stairs Mysteries? The main sleuth is a cook during 1900s England and it always includes how she cooks food!
No, I haven’t read any of the books, but I just checked the website of my local library. The library has many of the books in the series, so I’m going to have to get one the next time I visit the library. The series sounds really good.
my mom used to make this!
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back memories of your mother making this cake.
sounds interesting. I do love maraschino cherries. I wonder what pastry flour is?
Pastry flour is a low-gluten flour that can be used when making pies and other foods. It is similar to cake flour. Here’s a description on the Spruce Eats website:
What is Pastry Flour?