Whether you get your fresh cherries from an orchard, farmer’s market, grocery store, or your own backyard, you’ll enjoy them in this gluten-free cherry almond coffee cake! This gluten-free cherry cake is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dessert!
Every June, my family drives to a family run orchard about 25 minutes away to pick cherries for only $2/lb. Truly, it’s my husband that climbs the tall ladder we bring and picks 90% of the cherries, while I stand on a step stool and pick maybe 10%, while the boys run around chasing each other with fruit tree branches that they find on the ground. It really does make for fun memories and the fresh cherries are way tastier then most of the ones from the grocery store!
The orchard we go to is called Tyler’s Rocky Point Orchard in Emmett Idaho. Here’s a couple pics from this year’s trip up there. As you can see, it’s beautiful!
We enjoy most of the fresh cherries as is – they’re just so good! I’ve also made a cherry sauce before to put over ice cream (I’ll have to make that again so I can share it.) While my hubby would love cherry pie, I haven’t ever made one. I’ve got my eye on this gluten-free cherry pie from my friend Jules though and WILL make it for my hubby next year!
If you’ve got fresh cherries, the number one thing I recommend you buy is a good cherry pitter! Using one makes it so easy to pit cherries before giving cherries to little kids, and for preparing cherries for baking or cooking. I’ve had this cherry pitter for years and recommend it. It’s also available in red here. The clear plastic part is removable and we removed ours long ago as we prefer using without it.
I thought about making a gluten-free cherry loaf. But I love making gluten-free coffee cakes and decided that I should make a coffee cake with my fresh cherries.
In thinking about flavors and browsing through my various old cookbooks, I found the idea of pairing cherry and almond. Since so many of my readers have problems with dairy (I do too lately), I decided to make this a dairy-free cherry cake too!
I totally forgot to take a pic of all the ingredients used, so I’ll have to do that next time! It’s super easy though and you can buy everything you need at your local store or online easily!
Notes on ingredients for gluten-free cherry cake:
- Flour: I tested this recipe with one of my favorite gluten-free flour blends, gfJules. It has xanthan gum in it already, so no need to add additional. Other high quality flour blends should work just fine in this as well. If your flour blend doesn’t have xanthan or guar gum in it already, you’ll need to add it, as indicated in the recipe. You can buy gfJules gluten-free flour directly or from Amazon.
- Extracts: This recipe uses both almond and vanilla extracts. I use Nielsen-Massey extracts, which are certified gluten-free. I both buy on Amazon: almond extract and pure vanilla extract. If you don’t want to use almond extract, you could opt for a lemon spin and use lemon extract instead, or just use double the vanilla extract.
- Chopped almonds – I buy these certified gluten-free chopped almonds from nuts.com. They have a great selection of certified gluten-free nuts and dried fruits that are packaged in a separate gluten-free line in a separate part of their warehouse away from any gluten. So often, nut products are manufactured on shared equipment, so having a dedicated gluten-free environment is awesome. I buy all my nut and dried fruit products there!
- Coconut Oil: I use this coconut oil that I pick up at my local Fred Meyer store or buy a 3-pack on Amazon here.
- Non-dairy milk: Use your favorite plain or vanilla milk alternative. My go-to non-dairy milk lately is Good Karma unsweetened vanilla Flax milk. I love it and can find it at several local stores. I also keep their shelf stable cartons of vanilla flax milk on hand that I buy from Amazon and those would work well in this recipe too!
- Please note that if you can have dairy, and would prefer to, just use unsalted butter in place of the coconut oil and real milk in place of the non-dairy milk.
While this is NOT a sponsored post for gfJules gluten-free flour, I wanted to share a bit more about it, just because I love this product and brand. I’ve been using gfJules flour since I was first diagnosed (it had a different name before). Every recipe I make here on the blog has been tested with either gfJules or Gluten-free Mama flour, but usually tested with both. I love that gfJules flour is truly an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. You can use it as a cup for cup flour replacement in all of your non-yeast recipes. (Yeast breads are tricky – I recommend following gfJules bread recipes for those!
Over the years, I’ve become dear friends with Jules, the amazing woman behind the gfJules brand. I’ve never had a sister, but if I did, I’d wish she was like Jules. She’s a kind woman, tough as nails, smart, helpful and an incredible celiac advocate.
All that said, if you haven’t tried her flour yet, you totally should! You can sign up for emails to receive coupon codes for percentages off your order, or free shipping, etc. When you’re ready to buy, you get a great price from buying from gfJules website directly. But I also know it’s so convenient to just add gluten-free flour to your Amazon order, so I’m thankful that Amazon carries gfJules flour too.
Other gluten-free cherry recipes:
Looking for more gluten-free recipes that use fresh cherries? Try this amazing looking gluten-free black forest cake from my friend Jeanine. I love the idea of using tart cherries in these gluten-free cherry pie dessert shots from my friend Chrystal. And my friend Chandice just posted this gluten-free cherry cobbler that looks delicious!
If you love coffee cakes, be sure to try my gluten-free triple berry coffee cake too! It’s perfect for later in the summer when raspberries and blackberries are ripe, but you can sub any favorite berry in it!
Would you like to come over and join me for a coffee break? We can have cherry cake, coffee, and some fresh cherries too!
Gluten-free Cherry Cake Recipe:
Use fresh cherries in this gluten-free cherry almond coffee cake! It's perfect for breakfast, brunch, or even dessert! This yummy gluten-free dairy-free coffee cake is topped with a perfectly crumbly streusel. Check to see if your gluten-free flour blend has xanthan or guar gum already in it. If it does, no need to add the xanthan called for in this recipe. If it doesn't, add the 1/4 tsp. called for. Example, when I used gfJules flour for this, I omitted the xanthan gum because her flour has xanthan in it already. If you CAN have dairy, feel free to use real unsalted butter in place of the coconut oil in both places it's called for and use dairy milk in place of the non-dairy milk. See my blog post for the specific brands/kinds of everything I used if you have any questions! As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.Gluten-free Cherry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Streusel
CAKE
Instructions
PREPARE:
MAKE THE STREUSEL FIRST:
PREPARE THE CHERRIES:
MAKE THE COFFEE CAKE:
Notes
Recommended Products
I hope you and your family enjoy this cherry cake gluten-free!
Christy
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
I absolutely love this recipe! I made it the first time without almonds or almond extract because of a loved one who’s allergic to almonds. It was still delicious! The second time I made it with the almond extract, but I omitted the almonds in the topping. It was much better with the almond extract. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
LJ in PA
Thursday 19th of December 2019
Would frozen cherries work in this?
Christy
Wednesday 27th of October 2021
@LJ in PA,
I used frozen sour cherries. I thawed, drained, and rinsed them, and they worked perfectly.
Jules Shepard
Friday 13th of July 2018
Oh my gosh do I ever need this coffee cake in my life?!? My parents just left after a whirlwind visit and I sent my celiac mom off with gf muffins I baked this morning. Now I wish I'd had some fresh cherries - I bet I could have baked this coffee cake in muffin tins instead for traveling! I can't wait to try this, Michelle! And trust me, if I ever had a sister, I would thank God every day if she was anything like you. Glad we can CHOOSE to be sisters because we want to! HUGS!!!! ~jules
Doreen
Wednesday 11th of July 2018
Can you please give the nutritional counts for this cake please? Many thanks. I am particularly wondering what the net carb count is. It looks delicious