Lemon Coffee Cake with Dried Tart Cherries

This coffee cake has been one of my go-to recipes for at least 5 years now. I make it for a lot of brunch functions, bring the cake into the office to share with employees, and make it at home. It's always a hit, and I love how beautiful the final presentation is with the shape of the bundt cake. The texture of the cake is similar to a pound cake: nice buttery taste, but still a delicate crumb. The lemon flavor of the cake comes from a generous amount of lemon zest, as well as lemon juice. To top that off, the entire cake is drizzled with a glaze with even more lemon zest and juice. The lemon flavor is huge, but I have never heard any complaints of it being too much.  The tart cherries add a nice contrasting sour taste to the sweet cake, but I've made the cake with fresh and frozen blueberries and raspberries which work just as wonderfully.

RECIPE:  Lemon Coffee Cake with Dried Tart Cherries
makes 1 bundt cake, which serves 10-12 (substitute two small loaf pans if you don't have a bundt pan)

INGREDIENTS:
Cake:
1.5 cups dried tart cherries
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
5 eggs
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup plain yogurt

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:
Place dried cherries in a medium bowl and cover with hot tap water. Let soak and plump for 10 minutes, then drain thoroughly and check for pits.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest. Beat on medium speed for 5-8 minutes, until the mixture becomes smooth and pale in color. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully mixed into the butter before adding another. After the last egg is incorporated, slowly add the lemon juice and mix for 1 more minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 30 seconds to make sure all of the ingredients are fully incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.

Alternately add small amounts of the flour mixture and the yogurt to the batter, mixing with a wooden spoon just until all dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter. Set aside 10-12 cherries for topping the cake at the end. Gently fold the remainder of the cherries into the batter, taking care not to overmix. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan, filling two thirds of the pan. Bake on center rack of oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Check the center of the coffee cake with a skewer. It will come out clean when the cake is finished. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes.

Loosen the sides of the cake with a sharp knife. Place a serving plate, upside down, on top of the cooled bundt pan and invert the pan to remove the cake. Let cake cool completely.

Glazing the cake. Sift powdered sugar into a medium bowl, add lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix with a spoon until smooth. Thin or thicken the glaze to your liking with more juice or sugar, respectively. Drizzle glaze over the cooled coffee cake and top with the reserved plumped cherries.