To make our summer a little more exciting during the coronavirus outbreak, my kids and I made a summer bucket list. Honestly, I thought it would take all summer to get it done, but we are busting through each of our items pretty quickly. Looks like a second bucket list may happen in our near future, especially if school is out in the fall.

I grew up in Southern Virginia, where come May, there are are strawberry fields galore to pick from. It was something my mom and I used to do, and I loved it! One summer when I was pregnant with baby number 3, I took the two oldest out for a visit to grandma’s for a week. It was humid and hot and my toddler at the time did not love it. He did enjoy the strawberries and ate his fair share.

Then again after I had baby number 4, we took our kids to pick strawberries on the coast in California. Talk about perfect weather for fruit picking.

So I thought it would be fun to take the kids fruit picking this summer to continue on the tradition. However, now we live in Utah and there are no you-pick strawberry fields or berry fields of any sort. I still put it on the list though and crossed my fingers something would pop up.

Not even a few weeks into summer, a person in my neighborhood posted on Facebook that he need help picking his cherry tree. The kids and I were so excited and we made a morning of it. It was such a blast. The tree was small enough that there were low lying branches for the littler kids to pick from, and strong enough for the the older kids to climb up and reach the really ripe cherries at the very top. They would have stayed and picked all day if they could have.

To our surprise, though, these cherries were SOUR! These are not the kind of cherries you buy in the store, but we continued to pick and I promised the kids they would taste great once we added sugar to them.

We decided on a cake and couldn’t have been happier with the results. This is a dense pound cake like texture and so scrumptious. The glaze on top seeps into the cake and then hardens a bit and is the perfect topping. Even my husband who hates fruity desserts gobbled this up. If you don’t have access to a sour cherry tree, I’m sure this would still be incredible with cherries from the grocery store.

Sour Cherry Almond Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 TBS. fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups fresh sour cherries
2 TBS flour
2 TBS sugar

For the Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 TBS milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Toss pitted cherries with flour and sugar in a bowl. Set aside. Combine oil, eggs, yogurt, vanilla, almond extract, and lemon juice together. Once combined, add all the dry ingredients. Batter will be thick and velvety. Slowly fold in cherries. Grease a 9X13 pan and pour batter in. Bake for 55-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. When cake comes out, mix together glaze ingredients until runny, but not too milky. Pour over entire cake and let cool. Serves great with an extra sprinkle of powdered sugar, whipped cream, or ice cream.