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This Cherry Poppy Seed Loaf Cake is such a beautiful burst of flavor and color in the middle of winter! The best part? It uses maraschino cherries that are cheap, cheerful, and available year-round so you can make this 365 days a year!
A New Cherry Twist on Poppy Seed Loaf!
If there is one thing that we always have in the house, it’s maraschino cherries. Mr Magpie loves to make his 1960’s Old Fashioned’s with them, so there is always a jar in the fridge. He also loves poppy seed loaf, so it has been on my radar to make one for a while now. While I had actually planned on making a lemon poppy seed loaf ( watch for that recipe next week!) I decided that I wanted something cheery and new. Thus, cherry poppy seed loaf was born!
The best place to get poppy seeds is in the bulk section at your local grocery store. Make sure that you get poppy seeds and not chia! They can look really similar in those bulk bins, let me tell you!
A few tips for Baking this Cherry Poppy Seed Loaf Cake
- Try not to overbeat the butter and eggs together. While I do use a hand mixer in the video, I made sure not to get it too fluffy. This can cause your loaf cake to fall.
- Do try to take the time to soak the poppy seeds in the milk mixture. It helps soften them a bit.
- I don’t guarantee that this poppy seed loaf will always turn out pink! Sometimes there is just not enough color to go throughout the entire loaf. If you really want it pink, add in some food coloring to ensure a really pink loaf!
- Loaf cakes are notorious for taking well over an hour to bake, so make sure that you test all the way to the middle with a cake tester or toothpick and make sure it’s done!
I think I am going to whip this up again this weekend! It was so good!
Happy Baking!
Love,
Karlynn
Cherry Poppy Seed Loaf Cake
Ingredients
Poppy Seed Mix
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
Poppy Seed Loaf Cake
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
Instructions
- Combine the poppy seeds, milk and juice in a small bowl. Set aside while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a standard loaf pan (9x5x3 inches) and set aside.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated, then add in the almond extract. Stir in the poppy seed mixture.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and stir in until combined. Stir in the cherries last, the spoon the batter into the loaf pan, making sure it’s even on top.
- Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool until you can safely touch the pan and turn out the loaf onto a cooling rack. Cool completely.
- Frost with my Cherry Icing Glaze recipe.
Video
Nutrition
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Jennifer Cruts says
Is this good without the frosting?
Rayn says
I used sour cherries instead of maraschino cherries, it worked wonderfully.
I also made a loaf for a person with nut allergies. I substituted vanilla extract for the almond extract and doubled the amount of juice used. It was less fragrant but still really good.