Get those cherry pitters ready!

So, how did we make a dent in the bounty of fresh cherries we picked up the other day? We began by making this Dark Cherry Bundt Cake that Jeff brought into the office to share yesterday.

Swirled inside of this soft cake is a homemade cherry "filling" that is almost as thick as you might expect with a jam. Just a little granulated sugar to sweeten and cornstarch to thicken is added to a healthy three cups of the dark sweet fruit. A little kirch and lemon zest is stirred in to deepen the cake's flavor - if you don't use alcohol or don't care to buy a nip for a recipe, you can go ahead and use fresh orange juice. Since cherries and almond pair exquisitely well, the mixture is given a splash of almond extract once removed from the heat.

Soft in texture, the cake achieves this by mixing a combination of light cake flour and whole-wheat pastry flour. If you don't have the more nutritious pastry flour, you can get away with using all-purpose. To lend a buttery flavor, yet not require the use of a full stick, a few tablespoons are combined with a healthier canola oil. While the cake is still fairly low in the fat department, don't think that it will be dry by any means - just over a cup of vanilla yogurt added will keep the cake moist while adding an alluring tang.

To bulk up the vanilla flavor in the yogurt, a good dose of vanilla extract is added to the cake batter. And lest we forget about that splash of almond extract in the filling, we also added a bit to the batter to tie the two together. When you swirl the batters together, the jam will inevitably ooze out a bit, so be sure to prepare your baking pan well. For bundt cakes especially, I always use a baking spray that has flour added (like Baker's Joy or Pam with Flour) and have yet to have a cake stick on me. I didn't think that this cake needed any fancy drizzles of frosting or glazes, but I did dust the top with confectioners' sugar right before we sent it into the office which gave the cake a more finished look.

Recipes
Dark Cherry Bundt Cake