Vintage Cherry Pecan Cake





My BFF's husband grew up in Texas and remembers his mother making a cherry pecan cake for every birthday. Pecans are a thing in the south so they show up in lots of dishes. When I looked further I found a vintage recipe that suggests ways of saving sugar. It was probably a WWII era recipe. 



I thought I would add pecans to my already tested cherry cake I made a while back. I used this recipe as a basis. https://www.mycakeschool.com/cherry-cake-a-scratch-recipe/#mv-creation-36  My Cake School

This version got good reviews from all concerned.

Ingredients.

Normally I brush the cakes with a sugar syrup and add some mayo. This is so moist neither is needed.

3 cups (342g) cake flour plus 2 Tablespoons for dusting cherries

1Tablespoon (15g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (2g) salt

6 egg whites (180g)

2/3 cup (146g) cherry juice from a 10 ounce bottle of maraschino cherries, if there is not enough juice to reach 2/3's cup add water or milk

3/8 cup (172g) milk

3/8 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon (4g) cherry extract

1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil

2 cups (400g) granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened but still cold to the touch

Fold in:

maraschino cherries from a 10 ounce jar (use all) chopped and dusted with 2 Tablespoons flour (I dried them on a paper towel after chopping before dusting with flour)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 3 (8 inch) round pans

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt for at least 30 seconds

In another bowl, cherry juice, milk, vanilla and cherry extract, and vegetable oil. Blend together with a fork.

In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and beat at medium speed to soften. Add the sugar and continue to beat until lightened in color and fluffy, approximately 

Add approximately 1/2 of the flour mixture to the bowl, mixing on low speed until just blended. Add half of the wet ingredients and blend. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients (ending with dry) until blended. Do not over beat.

Reserve approximately 2 Tablespoons chopped cherries. Gently stir the remaining chopped cherries into the batter.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into batter.

Once the batter is in the cake pans, sprinkle the reserved cherries over the top of the batter, and using a toothpick push them just slightly below the surface of the cake batter. Even though the flour is supposed to keep the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the pan, I find that most will, so this is my reason for adding a few to the top.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, when the cake springs back to the touch or a toothpick pulls out clean or with only a few crumbs attached, the cake is done.

Makes 7 1/2 cups cake batter