Recipe #1 Cherry Almond Coffee Cake

This is the first of 150 recipes in the Sweet Tooth Project.  The inspiration for this recipe was a Cranberry Upside-Down Coffee Cake found on a recipe website.  I love Cranberries and Pecans, but thought cherries and almonds would be an interesting twist.  I kept the same upside-down presentation and just changed a few of the ingredients.  Here is Recipe #1

Difficulty Level:  Medium - High

Ingredients:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 (5 oz.) bag dried cherries
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small, microwave safe bowl combine cherries and orange juice and microwave on high power for 3 1/2 minutes. Generously spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.  In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Wisk until well incorporated and there are no lumps in the flour. Set aside.  Melt 1/3 cup butter in the microwave and pour into the cake pan.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the melted butter and mix until sugar is moistened. Spread sugar/butter mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle almonds over the sugar/butter mixture.  Drain the cherries and sprinkle evenly over the almonds.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the almond extract.  Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Place the pan on a cookie sheet while baking to catch any bubbling sugar mixture that may escape out the top of the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto serving platter and carefully remove pan.  Serve warm.

Note:  if your cake pan is dark metal, decrease the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake time may increase by 5-10 minutes.  Use the toothpick test to check doneness.



What I learned from this recipe
-Anytime you make changes to a recipe it is a shot in the dark as to whether it will come out or not.  Especially if it is a baking recipe.  I made 2 batches of the recipe both with my changes and baked them at the same time.  I have learned that for my next recipe, I will make one recipe with my changes and evaluate it, then make another recipe with any further changes needed.
For example, I originally made this recipe without soaking the cherries in OJ and they were a little overcooked with a sort of burnt sugar flavor.  I have since changed that hoping that the moisture from the OJ will eliminate the overcooking of the cherries.  The cake was incredibly moist so I changed nothing but to increase the almond extract.  I originally had 1 teaspoon, but increased it to 2 to give the batter a little more almond flavor.  If you like cinnamon flavor more than almond, you can use 1 teaspoon almond and increase the cinnamon by 1/4 teaspoon.

Looks like I will have to try this one again to see if my changes are workable.  Does it sound like something you would like to try?  Do you like to experiment with recipes too?

Update:  Tried this recipe again with my changes.  It came out perfectly.  Had to scoop out the almond and cherry topping and put it back on, but I think it makes it prettier that way.