Fresh Cherry Cake with Sugar Crunch Top (No Frosting Needed)

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This fresh cherry cake is a soft, buttery sour cream cake studded with juicy sweet cherries and finished with a crackly sugar crunch top. No frosting needed!

Quartering the cherries keeps them suspended through the whole cake instead of sinking, and it bakes in one 9-inch pan in about an hour. It’s the cake I make on repeat every summer when cherries hit their peak.

You’ll also love our cherry bread, cherry almond cake, cherry snack cake and cherry pie bars.

fresh cherry cake with sugar crunch top on a wire rack

QUICK LOOK: Fresh Cherry Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes (pitting included!)
Bake Time: 35–40 minutes
Total Time: About 1 hour
Servings: 8 slices
Cook Method: Baked, one 9-inch round pan
Flavor & Texture: Buttery vanilla crumb, pockets of jammy cherries, crisp crackly sugar crust
Difficulty: Easy! No frosting, no decorating

Can You Use Fresh Cherries in a Cake?

Yes! Fresh cherries bake beautifully into cake, and they hold their shape better than most berries. Pit them, quarter them, and fold them straight into the batter.

The reason fresh cherries work so well is their structure. Unlike raspberries or strawberries, which can collapse when mixing, cherries have firm flesh that softens into little jammy pockets while keeping their edges. Every slice gets deep red bursts of cherries.

What Kind of Cherries Work Best in Cherry Cake?

Dark sweet cherries, the Bing or Lambert type, are the best choice for this cake. They’re sweet enough that the cake doesn’t need extra sugar to balance them and their deep red color looks beautiful in a cake.

Sour cherries (Montmorency) will work if that’s what your tree gives you, but expect noticeably tart pockets. If you go that route, toss the cherries with an extra tablespoon of sugar before folding them in.

A few buying and prepping notes, and a cherry pitter makes the job quick:

Look for cherries that are firm and glossy with green stems. Soft, dull cherries are past their prime and will water down the batter.
No cherry pitter? Press each cherry against the wide end of a piping tip, or use a sturdy straw pushed through the stem end. A paring knife around the pit works too. You’re quartering them anyway, so they don’t need to stay pretty.
Wear an apron. Cherry juice can get everywhere!

How Do You Keep Cherries From Sinking in the Cake?

Two things keep the cherries suspended in this fresh cherry cake: quartering the fruit and a thick sour cream batter. Small pieces of fruit are light and thick batter is strong. Together, the cherries stay put from the top of the cake to the bottom.

You’ll see other recipes tell you to toss the fruit in flour first. That trick helps in thin batters. This batter, with a full half cup of sour cream and mixed just until the flour disappears, is thick enough to hold quartered cherries on its own. When you spread it into the pan, it should mound and need coaxing with your spatula, not pour.

Ingredients

Aside from the dark sweet cherries, this fresh cherry cake calls for pantry staples. I use salted butter, but if you only have unsalted, add another dash of salt.

Room temperature butter, eggs and sour cream will mix into this batter best, just like with our old fashioned pound cake and brown sugar pound cake.

cherry sugar crunch cake ingredients on a table

How to Make Fresh Cherry Cake

The full printable recipe card is just below, but here’s exactly what you’re walking into:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan (a springform works great). If you want to lift the whole cake out to serve, line the bottom with parchment first.
Whip the butter with 1 cup of the sugar until pale and fluffy, a full five minutes. Don’t shortcut this; it’s where the cake’s lift starts. (The remaining ¼ cup of sugar is reserved for the crunch top.)
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, then add it to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream. Begin and end with flour, and mix just until combined each time. Streaks of flour disappearing is your stop sign.

Fold in the quartered cherries gently with a rubber spatula and spread the thick batter into the pan.

Sprinkle the reserved ¼ cup sugar evenly over the top. All of it. It looks like a lot. It’s supposed to.

Bake 35–40 minutes, until the top is crackly and lightly browned and the center jiggles just slightly. A toothpick in the center should come out with moist crumbs.

Fresh Cherry Cake with Sugar Crunch Top

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This fresh cherry cake is a soft, buttery sour cream cake studded with juicy sweet cherries and finished with a crackly sugar crunch top. No frosting needed!

Servings 8

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 35

Total Time 45

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

1/2 cup salted butter softened to room temperature
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoons salt
½ cup full-fat sour cream or full fat Greek yogurt
2 cups dark sweet cherries pitted and quartered

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan (or springform pan) with cooking spray and set aside. If you'd like to completely remove the whole cake from the pan to serve, line the cake pan with parchment paper before adding the cake batter.)
In a large bowl, whip together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar (the other ¼ will go on top) until pale and fluffy, about five minutes. ½ cup salted butter , 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
Add the vanilla (or almond) and eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 large eggs
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture, mixing just until combined after each addition. 1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoons salt, ½ cup full-fat sour cream
Gently fold in the cherries to the cake batter using a rubber spatula. Spread the batter in the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of sugar evenly over the top of the cake batter. 2 cups dark sweet cherries
Bake 35-40 minutes. The cake is done when the sugar top is crackly and golden, the edges have pulled slightly from the pan, and the very center still has the faintest jiggle. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it, not wet batter.
Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then serve.

Notes

Smaller or deeper pans need more time. If you swapped the 9-inch round for an 8-inch, start checking at 40 minutes and expect to go longer.
Also, using low fat/fat free sour cream or yogurt may require a longer baking time.
Storage Instructions: If you plan to eat the cake within 1-2 days, you can store it at room temperature. Cover the cake tightly with plastic wrap or store it in an airtight container to keep it moist and prevent it from drying out. For longer storage, place the cake in an airtight container and refrigerate it. The cake will stay fresh for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 8 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. **

Nutrition

Author Julie Clark

Course afternoon tea, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, French, Mediterranean

Calories 367

Keyword baked, easy, fruit-based, sweet

How Should I Store Fresh Cherry Cake?

Store fresh cherry cake covered tightly at room temperature for 1–2 days, or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The sour cream and the juicy fruit mean it stays moist longer than a standard butter cake.

To freeze: wrap individual slices in plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature. The crunch top won’t be there, but the cake is still delicious.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to pit the cherries?

Yes, always. A hidden pit can crack a tooth, and quartering requires pitting anyway.

Can I Use Frozen Cherries Instead of Fresh?

Yes. Frozen dark sweet cherries work in this cake with two adjustments: don’t thaw them, and quarter them while still frozen (a sharp knife handles semi-frozen cherries fine). Thawed cherries release a flood of juice that turns the batter purple and gummy.
Fold the frozen quarters in exactly as you would fresh, and add about 5 extra minutes to the bake time since they chill the batter.

Can I double this recipe?

Yes. Double everything and bake it in a 9×13-inch pan; start checking around 40 minutes. Sprinkle a full ½ cup of sugar over the larger surface for the crunch top.

Why did my cake take longer than 40 minutes?

Usually one of three things: a smaller/deeper pan, low-fat or fat-free sour cream (more water, slower set), or extra-juicy cherries. Trust the cues and watch for a crackly golden top and moist crumbs on the toothpick.