Prize Cherry Cake from the 1974 Cream of the West Cookbook

Imagine 5 young girls in front of an old Television set, cross legged in a semi circle anxiously awaiting Sally West and the Cream of the West annual Christmas sing a long! Oh how we looked forward to this, all of us young, old didn’t matter put you in a great mood for the entire day. We all sang along even if some of us sang better than others.

In search of the best cherry cake recipe I decided to give this one a go. Its very good, buttery and loaded with cherries with the perfect amount of flavorings. The lemon zest gives a nice brightness to the flavor. I do believe its our new favorite.

Normally we make cream cheese cherry cake this one, though it is dense, it was less dense and had a nicer flavor than the cream cheese in my opinion.

The recipe calls for Glace cherries, I used mostly maraschino in my cake. I find they tend to give the cake a nice moistness. Just be sure to cut your cherries first, drain juice from the cherries especially after sitting for a while and don’t forget to dredge in flour before putting them into the batter. Be careful not to over stir, or your batter may have a pinkish hue. That could be nice too though if you like pink batter.

It also calls for a can of Fussell’s cream, as shown below. It’s basically a thick sterilized cream in a can. A Newfoundland pantry staple for sure. So many people have shared their memories of this cream from shaking it, to rolling in back and forth the hallway or corridor just to make sure you had the right consistency when you opened the can. Some people even put it on plain bread with jam. That’s how my mom likes it.

If you have a difficult time finding Fussells cream, you can easily substitute, Carnation and Dutch Baby makes one very similar. I used the Dutch Baby. I also hear clotted cream is similar though I am afraid to say I have never tasted it.

Watch me make the cake here in my very own kitchen.

I sure hope you enjoyed the video here is a list of ingredients required for this tried and true cherry cake:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 & 1/2 cups butter or margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. almond flavor
• 5 eggs
• 1 lemon Zest & juice
• 1 Can Fussells cream
• 16 oz. of cherries dredged in flour

How to make this delicious cake:

Combine together 4 cups of flour with 1 tsp. of baking powder and 1/4 tsp. of salt set aside.

Cream 1 & 1/2 cups of butter ( you can substitute margarine) gradually to this add 2 cups of white sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Beat with hand mixer for 2 minutes.

Blend in 5 eggs one at a time blend well after each addition. Fold alternatly into this, your sifted dry ingredients, the rind and juice of one fresh lemon and one can of Fussells cream.

Add 16 oz. of glace cherries that have been dredged in 2 Tbsp. of flour. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 & 1/2 – 2 hrs. or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Thank you in advance for your donation any amount helps keep the site up and running without annoying ads.