From Alejandra Owens. You can find her at her food blog, One Bite At A Time. Alejandra also writes for City Eats DC, a Food Network site, where you can book dinner reservations. Follow her on Twitter at @frijolita and email her at alejandra[AT]borderstan.com.

Just waiting to be made into Cherry Almond Cake. (Alejandra Owens)

Cherries are, by far, my favorite summer fruit. Mostly because they’re a fruit that doubles as interactive sport. Uncouth as it may be, I’m a pro cherry pit spitter. Slam dunks into trash cans, spot on target practice with unwitting victims (usually our dogs back at home)…I say screw it with that pseudo-sexual cherry stem tying shit and go right for the pit spitting.

But I also enjoy cherries and their robust flavor for baking. Last summer I had procured, per usual, too many pints of cherries and had to do something with them. (Why am I always baking at the last possible ripened minute?) After watching some Cooking Chanel, I decided to play around with one of my favorite cherry pairings, almonds, and a cake a recipe that seemed nice enough, but really dull.

The result was my cherry almond cake. It was moist, fluffy and had a nice crumb to it. It’s a perfect breakfast cake or light dessert, you need only brave the pain of pitting all the cherries because this particular cake is so damn easy to pull together!

What will you be making with cherries this season? Anyone making ice creams sans an ice cream maker lately? I’d love some tips and recipes if you’d like to share!

Cherry Almond Cake

Inspired by Laura Calder’s Angel Cakeand the cherry almond scones at Dolcezza in Dupont Circle.

• 6 eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1-1 1/2c pitted, rough chopped cherries (very rough, cut each half in half)
• 1/4c ground almonds, 1 tbsp sliced almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and line a 9-inch springform pan.
2. Beat the whites to stiff peaks in a bowl. Beat in the yolks, one by one. Continuing to beat, add the sugar and vanilla, and finally the flour. You should have a very high, moussy batter. Gently fold in the cherries and ground almonds.
3. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake until golden on top, risen high, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let the cake cool 15 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and let cool completely. Transfer the cake to a serving platter.
4. Serve with whipped cream, creme fraiche, parfait, or ice cream. Ideally I would have eaten this, I mean, served this, with creme fraiche…but it was just me. And I didn’t have time to make creme fraiche. I wanted to eat it all. Now. But for you guys, who might take this to a party, serve it with creme fraiche!

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