Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

What better way to welcome the weekend than this moist, delicious coffee cake for breakfast or brunch. The coffee cake is prepared as an upside-down cake and then generously drizzled with a very simple cream cheese glaze. You can use fresh cherries if they are in season or simply use frozen as I did here. The moist buttery cake is so delicious when combined with the sweet cherries and luscious cream cheese glaze. A cake this good shouldn't be limited to brunch though, I think it would make a spectacular dessert at any great home cooked meal.

Grease and flour a 10 inch cake pan or tube pan very well and preheat oven to 355 degrees F.

Toss together:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp corn starch

Sprinkle the mixture over:

• 3 cups fresh or frozen pitted cherries

Toss together well and spread evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

To prepare the cake batter begin by sifting together

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together at high speed until very foamy

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract

In a large measuring cup melt

• 1/2 cup butter, then mix in
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Slowly add this butter and oil mixture to the egg and sugar mixture as it continues to beat.

Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with

• 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

When alternating wet and dry ingredients, always begin and end with the dry mixture. Here I folded in the flour in three divisions and the milk in two divisions. Pour the batter over the cherries in the baking pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The toothpick test is definitely the best way to ensure this cake is fully baked. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Remove the pan and allow the cake to cool down completely before drizzling on the glaze (or at least for 20 minutes if you plan to serve it warm).

Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

• 2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a standard Philadelphia brand block)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2-3 tsp milk

Beat all ingredients together very well in an electric mixer until very smooth. Add more or less milk to get the glaze to the proper consistency which should be relatively thick but not quite pourable. Spoon the glaze into a piping bag and drizzle over the cake. ( A Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off will work just as well.)