A simple comforting sour cherry streusel cake bursting with tart juicy cherries and showered with powdered sugar ~ ready to brighten up your winter morning.
This sour cherry streusel cake is inspired by traditional German streuselkuchen, with tart cherries, a shortbread-adjacent cake base, and a nubbly streusel topping. Baked thinner than New York style crumb cakes (like my Cardamom Crumb Cake and Lemon Sugar Crumb Cake) this one has a low profile that highlights that bright fruit.
This classic coffee cake-style dessert works for breakfast, brunch, or an afternoon coffee break. I slice it razor thin for snacking 🙂
ingredients to pick up for sour cherry streusel cake
cherries: traditional German streusel cakes are made with tart (sour) cherries, preferably jarred or canned in juice. That’s ideal for this cake because you’ll use some of the cherry liquid to make your filling.
classic flavorings: vanilla, almond, nutmeg or mace (I’m obsessed with mace this year!)
almond flour and sliced almonds: a small amount of almond flour adds tenderness and richness to the cake, and I fold the sliced almonds into the streusel topping. Not traditional, but good!
the German Streuselkuchen method
In classic German baking, especially for Streuselkuchen, the base dough is often a Mürbeteig-style or butter-rubbed dough, not a creamed cake batter. I use the method here in my sour cherry streusel cake:
- mix dry ingredients first
- cut or rub cold butter into the flour until crumbly
- add egg just to bring it together
That gives you a tender shortbread-like crumb, not fluffy but super rich and sliceable. This along with the sturdy crumb topping is what gives this sour cherry crumb cake its distinctive texture.
the bottom line on sour cherry streusel cake
I’m thrilled with this recipe and I’ll definitely be re-inventing it with different fruits and jams.
- The secret to this streusel cake is in the proportions: the crust to cherries to streusel ratio should be about equal. You get a bit of everything in every bite and the cake isn’t overwhelming.
- The sour cherry-almond flavor gives this a truly Old World European bakery flavor.
- The snowy powdered sugar topping makes it look so wintery. Be sure to load it on ~ if the first bite doesn’t make you cough, you haven’t put enough on, lol!
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Sour Cherry Streusel Cake
Equipment
- 10" tart pan with removable bottom or 10" cheesecake pan
Ingredients
cherry filling
- 2 1/2 cups tart or sour cherries in juice , unsweetened, drained
- 1/3 cup reserved cherry juice
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp sugar, or more to taste
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste, you can substitute almond extract if you prefer
cake base and streusel
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg or mace
- 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and butter your tart pan.
make the filling
- Put the drained cherries in a saucepan. Combine the cornstarch and the cherry juice and stir to dissolve. Add to the pan along with the sugar. Heat to a boil, stirring almost constantly, and let boil gently until the sauce has thickened and turned glossy. Stir in the vanilla off the heat and transfer to a large bowl to cool down. You can put it in the refrigerator if you like.
make the cake
- Put the all purpose flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, and spice into a food processor and pulse to combine. You can also use a stand mixer or electric beaters.
- Add the butter and, if you are using a food processor, pulse/process to incorporate it into a crumbly texture. Add the egg and extracts and briefly process to combine. Expect it to be drier than American cake dough ~ more like an enriched shortbread.
- Take about 2/3 of the dough and press it into the bottom of your prepared pan.
- Top with the cherry filling. Tip: I stay away from the very edges because the cherry filling can stick to the pan after baking and make it difficult to remove from the pan.
- Toss the sliced almonds with the rest of the cake mixture and crumble over the surface of the cherries.
- Bake 30-35 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the top is lightly golden.
- Let cool about 10 minutes before removing the sides of your pan. If there is any cherry filling stuck to the sides loosen it with an offset spatula first. Let the cake cool a bit more (warm is ok) before showering generously with powdered sugar.
- Store at room temperature for several days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
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This recipe sounds delicious! Where do you recommend looking for the tart cherries? Thanks!
Many grocery stores carry them, look in the baking aisle with the fruit pie fillings or the canned fruit aisle. Sometimes they’re in jars, sometimes cans. If you can only find sweet cherries you can experiment with reducing or eliminating the sugar and adding a bit of lemon juice.
Here’s an example at Walmart.
Oh, OK. I think I can find them in water in my area. I was mistaken & thought they were supposed to be in juice. Thanks!
Ideally in juice, but water will work.