This deliciously moist cherry Madeira cake recipe is perfect for an afternoon tea treat with a cup of tea. With a denser crumb than a sponge cherry fruit cake, each bite is fruity with glace cherries and ground almonds. What's not to love?
My Dad's all-time favourite cake is a simple Madeira cake so I remember us eating it a lot at home. If you've never tried an almond Madeira cake, it has a slightly heavier crumb than a Victoria sponge cake.
This is from its higher flour-to-butter ratio and deliciously relies on ground almonds for its moisture. And, you know how kids like to play with their food? I used to trap each mouthful between my tongue and the roof of my mouth and suck the almond oil out first.
And every time I make this classic cherry Madeira loaf cake for my Dad's birthday or at Christmas, it always brings by fond memories. Everyone can't wait to tuck into a slice!
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✔️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
Here are a few reasons why we think you'll also love this United Kingdom favourite, cherry and almond Madeira cake:
- Easy to make
- Fruity and moist
- No fancy baking equipment needed
- You know what's in it, unlike store bought
- Perfect to gift for a special occasion in an airtight tin
- This recipe makes delicious cherry Madeira cakes every time
🛒 Ingredient Notes
Please see the printable recipe card with exact ingredient quantities and preparation instructions at the bottom of this post.
Softened butter - this can be salted or unsalted butter with a pinch of salt, left at room temperature.
Caster sugar - this is baking sugar and can be white or golden caster sugar for a richer colour
Eggs - these are large eggs, which is one of the key ingredients for moisture and help it rise
Self raising flour - this is plain white wheat flour with added baking powder. Or use plain flour (all purpose flour) with 3 teaspoon of baking powder.
Ground almonds - this is almond flour for a really flavoursome and moist cake
Baking powder - this is added for a foolproof cherry and almond cake as it is mixed by hand, meaning fewer air pockets are likely created.
Glace cherries - I wash away any syrup, pat dry, then cut them into cherry halves before coating them in some of the flour to prevent sinking
Vanilla extract - or a few drops of almond extract
Lemon zest - for some sweet acidity which really enhances the flavour, especially if you prefer plain cakes
📋 Instructions
First, preheat the oven at 160c fan / 180c conventional / Gas mark 4 / 350F. Then butter and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking paper.
1. To prevent the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake, rinse with warm water to remove any sticky syrup.
Then slice them in half and pat dry with kitchen roll before mixing with a tablespoon of the flour and set aside.
2. Now cream the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
You can do this by hand or use an electric mixer.
3. Beat the eggs in a jug. Then slowly stir in a little at a time until all of the eggs have gone.
Now stir in the extract and lemon zest.
4. Add the rest of the flour, almond flour, and baking powder and stir until you see no traces of remaining flour left.
5. Next, gently fold in the cherries with 2 strokes and no more as they'll move while transferring to the tin.
Note the cherry cake batter will be stiff, so you might find a metal spoon better for the job.
6. Spoon the cake mix into the prepared tin and gently level with the back of a spoon.
Top with chopped nuts, almond flakes, etc if you wish, and bake in the centre of the oven for 45-60 minutes.
Then transfer to a wire rack after cooling in the tin for 10 minutes.
Tip: If by 45 minutes, the top of the cake is golden brown but the top seems too tender to test with a skewer, cover it with foil and place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
👩🍳 Substitutions
Depending on your dietary needs, here are a few simple swaps you can make:
- Butter - swap for Stork baking block, plant-based butter, or ¾ of the amount in vegetable oil (130g)
- Egg - you can swap for whey powder and mix up with water (or Madeira wine!). Or make a vegan Madeira cake by making 3 flax eggs (3 tablespoon flaxmeal + 7.5 tablespoon water)
- Cherries - swap for milk chocolate chips, desiccated coconut, chopped walnuts, pecans, dried fruits such as sultana, raisins for a fruit loaf Madeira, etc
⚖️ Variations
Here are a few different variations of Madeira cakes that you might like to try:
- Fruit loaf with nuts - a lovely, tasty touch is to sprinkle chopped nuts or almond flakes on top of the cake before baking
- Madeira buns - for Madeira cupcakes, you could halve the mixture and line a 12 cupcake tin as I do with my easy butterfly buns recipe. Or, use the same quantities for 24. They'd even make great cherry madeira butterfly buns if filling with cherry jam instead
- Cherry Bundt Cake - swap a 2lb loaf tin for a 27cm fluted ring cake tin. And by changing the chopped nuts for sliced almonds, it instantly makes it a cherry almond bundt cake
- Orange Madeira Cake Recipe - There are three changes you could make to call it an orange madeira cake. The obvious thing is to swap lemon zest for orange zest. Other adjustments could be:
- Use a tablespoon of orange juice instead of milk or orange blossom water
- Use Valencian orange extract instead of vanilla or almond
- Cherry and Marzipan Cake - Freezing leftover marzipan and finely grated 30g into the mixture and 30g of ground almonds. Or sytir in chunks at room temperature, (but not dried chunks), so it oozes into the cake better
- Cherry amaretto cake - swap extract for amaretto liqueur, which has a delicious sweet almond flavour
🔪 Equipment
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- Wooden spoon or electric whisk
- Large mixing bowl
- Chopping knife
- Chopping board
- Sieve
- 2lb loaf tin
- 2lb loaf liner
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups or Weighing scales
- Cheese grater
- Cake skewer
- Cooling rack
- Kitchen paper towels
- Colander
- A small bowl for cherries *not essential is making a plain Madeira cake recipe
❄️ Storage
Storing - we prefer eating this type of cake once cooled, but it can be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 3 days
Freezing - cool to room temperature and again, store in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Heating - If you want to eat the next day, defrost in the fridge if required and microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute
💡Pro Tips
- To prevent the cherries rom sinking in the cake, ensure you wash any syrup off and pat dry before rolling in some of the self raising flour and set aside
- If by 45 minutes, the top of the cake is golden brown but the top seems too tender to test with a skewer, cover it with foil and place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes
- Do not open the oven until the 45 minutes is up in case the cake sinks
- To test to see if the cake is done, insert a cake tester or skewer in the middle to see if any cake smears appear. If so, continue to bake for 10 minute increments
- When making a cherry cake, resist the temptation to make a classic Madeira cake by loosening the mix with 1-2 tablespoon of milk, otherwise, the cherries will sink no matter how small you chop them
- If you would like to finish with a drizzle of icing sugar, do this on the following day when it is cool to help it set quickly
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
Why not be authentic and enjoy with a glass of Madeira wine in the sun?
Alternatively, you can heat up and eat with hot custard on a cooler day for a comforting dessert. It also tastes great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
For a luxurious homemade cherry trifle, it is perfect as the sponge fingers, soaked in Sherry, Madeira wine, etc
❓ FAQ
What Is Madeira Cake?
For any child who grew up with a love for a classic Madeira cake recipe, it's easy to be oblivious as to where it originates from. But, more recently, I learned that this almost cherry pound cake has no connection to the Portuguese Madeira Islands.
However, it was, in fact, named after Madeira wine because it was often enjoyed together in England in the 19th century. The first mention found, was in Eliza Acton's 1845 book, Modern Cooker For Private Families.
Eliza's traditional Madeira cake is almost a pound cake. You'll find a pound cake is what it says on the tin. It uses equal weight measures of eggs, sugar and flour and butter.
But a Madeira cake traditionally uses ⅓ less butter and a ¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. Although I assume Eliza used plain flour, as baker, Henry Jones had only just invented self-raising flour the same year as the book was published.
In my recipe, I use a little less sugar as it also has sweetness from the ground almonds. And, they also support the cherries, which I'll explain why shortly.
To prevent glacé cherries from sinking, I dust them well with some of the flour so the fruit can stick to the cake batter as opposed to sinking to the bottom.
While testing to find the best cherry Madeira cake recipe, I found you must also wash the syrup away and halve or quarter them. But any less and they don't look as aesthetically pleasing and almost disappear.
Also, for best results, I no longer add milk to the batter for a lighter Madeira cake, unless you go plain. You want a stiff mixture instead so that it's more robust.
You could also fold 2 thirds of the cherries into the mix, then poke the final 3rd into the top of the cake before baking. but I just fold them all in for ease.
Ground almonds adds extra flavour and fat into the cake batter, making a robust Madeira cake more moist.
If wanting to bake with fresh cherries, I'd be inclined to stone and quarter, then freeze them before mixing into the batter. And/or place them on top of the Madeira batter.
Also, avoid using cherry pie filling as it will create a dense, stodgy cake, unless you want to make a cherry dump cake with dry Madeira cake ingredients as the topping. Or make a wet Madeira cake batter before layering on top of cherries in a slow cooker or oven to make a cobbler.
➕ More Fruit Cake Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
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📖 Recipe
Easy Cherry Madeira Cake Loaf Recipe with Almond
Equipment
Ingredients
- 175 g Unsalted butter (¾ cup) softened at room temperature
- 175 g Caster sugar (¾ cup)
- 3 large Eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract Or almond extract for a vanilla Madeira cake
- 1 Lemon zest only
- 225 g Self raising flour (1 + ⅓ cup +1.5 tbsp)
- 40 g Ground almonds (¼ cup)
- ¾ teaspoon Baking powder
- 200 g Glacé cherries (1 cup) Once measured/weighed, rinse, pat dry and halve them
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven at 160c fan / 180c conventional / Gas mark 4 / 350F. Then butter and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking paper.
- To prevent the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake, rinse with warm water to remove any sticky syrup.Then slice them in half and pat dry with kitchen roll before mixing with a tablespoon of the flour and set aside.
- Now cream the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.You can do this by hand or use an electric mixer.
- Beat the eggs in a jug. Then slowly stir in a little at a time until all of the eggs have gone.Now stir in the extract and lemon zest.
- Add the rest of the flour, almond flour, and baking powder and stir until you see no traces of remaining flour left.
- Next, gently fold in the cherries with 2 strokes and no more as they'll move while transferring to the tin.Note the cherry cake batter will be stiff, so you might find a metal spoon better for the job.
- Spoon the cake mix into the prepared tin and gently level with the back of a spoon.Top with chopped nuts, almond flakes, etc if you wish, and bake in the centre of the oven for 45-60 minutes.Then transfer to a wire rack after cooling in the tin for 10 minutes.
Disclaimer
*This is an unofficial page and has no affiliation or endorsement from Slimming World. Slimming World's website can be found at https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/. Any syn values are personal estimates and not verified by Slimming World.
Video
Notes
- To prevent the cherries rom sinking in the cake, ensure you wash any syrup off and pat dry before rolling in some of the self raising flour and set aside
- If by 45 minutes, the top of the cake is golden brown but the top seems too tender to test with a skewer, cover it with foil and place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes
- Do not open the oven until the 45 minutes is up in case the cake sinks
- To test to see if the cake is done, insert a cake tester or skewer in the middle to see if any cake smears appear. If so, continue to bake for 10 minute increments
- When making a cherry cake, resist the temptation to make a classic Madeira cake by loosening the mix with 1-2 tablespoon of milk, otherwise, the cherries will sink no matter how small you chop them
- If you would like to finish with a drizzle of icing sugar, do this on the following day when it is cool to help it set quickly
Vanessa Hickson
It doesn't say when to put the almonds in so I put them in with the cherries, hope it turns out ok
Vikkie Lee
Thanks so much for pointing this out! I've now revised the instructions 🙂