This Cherry Cake Recipe looks as delicious as it tastes. What’s even better is that it is made with just four simple ingredients – sweet cherries, dulce de leche, heavy whipping cream and puff pastry.
This Cherry Cake Recipe is very similar to a classic Napoleon Cake. It’s packed with fluffy whipped cream, crispy puff pastry, creamy dulce de leche and tart sour cherries.
What’s even better? This cake is the perfect dessert to make ahead. The longer it sets in the fridge, the more the flavors come out and meld together.
Tips For The Best Cherry Cake
Here are my top tips and tricks for getting the most out of this wonderful cake:
- Puff Pastry Dough: You can make your own puff pastry or purchase a store bought variety if you’re on a time crunch.
- Sour Cherries: The best cherries to use are the ones in light syrup. These mildly sweet cherries are perfect for baking because aren’t too sweet and overpowering. Bonus: Since the syrup has to be completely drained from the cherries for this recipe, save it and use it to make a batch of kompot.
- Dulce de Leche: Snag a store bought dulce de leche or make your own Instant Pot Dulce de Leche.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: Place your heavy whipping cream in the freezer for five minutes before you use it. This will help it turn ultra creamy and light as you whip it.
Hot Tip: Love the way nuts compliment the tartness of cherries? Add a teaspoon of almond extract to the cake to elevate the flavor.
How to Make Cherry Cake
This Cherry Cake Recipe is super fun to make. Follow the simple steps below to be sinking your fork into a slice in no time:
- Roll the puff pastry out thin. Cut it into 3-inch strips.
- Drain the syrup out of the cherries. Line the cherries up next to each other on the dough. Pinch the edges to seal the cherries on the inside.
- Line your 8-inch baking pans with parchment paper. Place the sealed dough pieces into circles flush with one another.
- Bake until the cake is golden brown. Remove from pan and let cool.
- Beat dulce de leche and cold heavy whipping cream until you get stiff peaks.
- Smear a layer of cream on your cake pan. Top with cake layer.
- Smear with more cream and top with second layer of cake.
- Decorate the cake with remaining cream and cherries as you wish. Place in a cake container and let it set in the fridge overnight.
Hot tip: Make sure not to overbeat your cream and dulce de leche. Once you get stiff peaks, stop beating immediately or else your cream will fall flat.
Making Cherry Cake In Advance
You can make this Cherry Cake Recipe 2-3 days in advance, making it an awesome dessert for the next dinner party you host. Just make sure to store the cake in an airtight container so it doesn’t soak up all the aromas that might be lingering in your fridge.
Substitutions for Sour Cherries
Not a huge fan of cherries? That’s okay – there are a ton of different preserved fruits you can use. Just make sure to select a fruit that is kept in a light syrup to prevent the cake from turning out too sweet. See below for a handful to choose from:
- Apricots
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Blackberries
- Mangoes
More Easy Cake Recipes
Love baking and looking for more sweet treats to add to your rotation? Look no further. Find some of our favorite cakes below:
- Drunken Cherry Cake – Baking with liqueur makes your cakes soooo moist. Give this recipe a try to see for yourself!
- Tiramisu Cake – This Italian coffee flavored cake is perfect for your next pasta night.
- Crepe Cake – A cake made of crepes?! You read it right.
- Strawberry Jell-O Poke Cake – Perfect for a kid’s party or a summer BB.
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Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 puff pastry sheets
- 56 oz sour cherries in syrup (juice drained)
- 13 oz dulce de leche
- 2 cups heavy whipped cream very cold
Instructions
- Roll out your puff pastry. Slice into 3-inch wide strips.
- Drain the syrup out of the cherries. Place cherries tightly next to each other on the piece of dough. Pinch the edges together to seal the cherries inside, making sure that none of the juice seeps out.
- Line two 8-inch baking pans with parchment paper. Wind the pieces of dough around one another, spiraling until you get a circular cake.
- Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown. If the cherries come out, that's fine, they will eventually be covered by cream. Remove the cake from the baking pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
- Place dulce de leche into a mixing bowl and add very cold heavy cream. Beat on medium-high until you get stiff peaks.
- Place a bit of cream on your serving plate. Top with first cake layer.
- Add more cream and spread it evenly. Top it off with a second layer.
- Decorate the cake with remaining cream and leftover cherries as you like. Place the cake in a sealed container and let it set in a fridge overnight.
The flavours are delicious! But I used the metric conversion and saw the other connect regarding the mistake too late. My cream just didn’t whip into stuff peaks because I used 120g rather than 450g 😞
Thank you for the recipe but perhaps you should update the conversion mistake 😞
Hi Chrissie - So sorry about that! Updating that now and thank you for bringing it to my attention. Glad you liked the cake overall. Happy New Year!
Hi, I made this cake yesterday, did not have enough cherries so substituted them with fresh cranberries. It tastes really good and fun to make. I just want to point out that the conversion of Double cream from US to metric is not correct- 1 cup of double cream is 232g hence 465g for 2 cups.
Thank you for the recipe <3
Hi Illona - Oh! Cranberries sounds bomb. I'll have to try that! Thanks for pointing out that conversion mistake - I'll make sure to update it.
HOw would fresh pitted cherries work?
Hi Irene - Great question! We like to use jarred cherries for the extra sweetness they add and the added texture they provide. We haven't tried the recipe with fresh cherries, but I presume it would work well and the cake would be on the slightly less sweeter side. Hope this helps!
made this last night, it's delicious. I think I used to much dulce de Leche, it was hard to whip the heavy cream, but I added whip it to stiffen it and that helped. when I tasted the whipped cream alone it was way too sweet, but combined with the cake it tasted perfect.
Hello, thank you very much for taking the time to share your feedback! I am os glad you loved the end results 🙂
Do you know if fresh raspberries will work in this recipe?
Hey Sophia, yes, you have to place them very tightly together. My only concern is that they cook down a lot and it can come out more flat. I think cherries would still be my favorite. 🙂
Hello,
I had a question. The stores near me only sell the pitted cherries in water instead of light syrup. Will that work too?
Hey Lina, what do you mean by water. Usually, it still has a sweetened flavor. I think it should work as long as they are tart.
I mean that the cherries come in a can with water instead of light syrup.
Lina, I think that should work.
My cake part worked but the icing wasn’t icing. I used 13 oz of dulce de leche ( almost 2 cups), right? I put it in the bowl, poured the whipping cream on top and whipped both together at med- high speed. It never did “ peak” and was pourable. I was kind of afraid it wouldn’t work. Was I supposed to beat the whipping cream until it was in peaks and then add the dulce de leche? It tastes good so what I did was pour it over the cake and let it overflow down the sides. However, I’d like to make this again… the right way. Help!
Hey Claudette, I have never had an issue with heavy whipping cream not coming to stiff peaks. What brand did you use?
What is the size of a puff pastry sheet?
Hey Jess, you will need about 16 oz of puff pastry. Depending on the brand, each one will be a different cut.
Will the puff pastry rise in the oven? I am thinking of using a thin pan and I am worried that it will puff up too much in the oven.
Hey Maureen, it would depends on how thin you roll it out. But usually a few inches.
Will the pan needs to be greased before putting the puff pastry in it? And will it be easy to get out the puff pastry once cooked?
Hey Alina, we use parchment paper to be safe but it should be pretty easy to take out.
How high will the cake layers rise? because I am using a 1.5 in thin pan (in height ) and I don't want it to overflow in the oven while baking?
Hey Lauren, this would depend on how thin you roll out the dough. It shouldn't overflow as it bakes, it becomes more crispy so it keeps the shape.
The cherries that you use, do they not have seeds in them?
Hey Lauren, no they dont have seeds in them. They are pitted cherries.
Making this cake for Easter 🐣 pretty easy and looks fancy! Thank you 😊
Let me know how it goes 🙂
Can I use sour cream and wipping cream instead of dulce de leche? Thank you.
Hey Mariana, yes you can. It sounds like a great combo.
Where do you add the almond extract?
Hey Sheryl, you can add it to the cream. Enjoy
I'm excited to try this!
Maybe I missed it, but what temp do you use to bake it?... or is it just the pastry dough baking instructions?
Hey Morgan, if you click on "jump to recipe" or scroll down, you will find all the instructions there.
Hi! Would the cans of Oregon speciality dark cherries in syrup work? Our Trader Joe’s has been sold out lately!
They aren’t sold out they disconnected it 🙁 those were my fave from Trader Joe’s
Hey Julia, if you drain out the syrup well enough, they should work. It becomes hard to seal the dough when there is too much liquids.
Hello, can I use regular pitted frozen cherries?
Ann, I am afraid that frozen cherries will produce too much juice and it will be a messy project. Canned sour would be the best. Enjoy
Hi! Where can I buy these sour cherries??
Either European store or Trader Joes.
I am going to make this cake! Reading the recipe should give all non bakers, cooks like me hope because 1) it is EASY to make and 2) the presentation is everything. Beautiful.
Haha, it is super simple! You're going to love it, let me know how it goes!
I took your advice and added the almond extract and boy, was that a winner! This was so delicious!!
how much extract did you use?
I'm so glad you loved the recipe, thank you for your feedback!
Wow! First time ever making a cake like this and it turned out amazing!! Such a fun idea, thanks or this awesome recipe!
I'm so glad you tried something new and enjoyed this cake!
Absolutely LOVE this! It's so simple but looks elegant and even more importantly, it's delicious!
Yay!! That is so good to hear.
Recipe for apple cake
What type of apple cake? If yous search for apple cake, we already have a few.
Looking for the apple cake recipe I saw yesterday
Try searching for "sharlotka" on the blog, that might be it.