Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze. A moist vanilla scratch cake baked on top of sweet dark cherries then glazed with cream cheese frosting. Delicious at a celebration brunch but good enough to serve as a decadent dessert too, especially while still warm.

Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze.
What better way to welcome the weekend than this moist, delicious Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake for breakfast or brunch.
The coffee cake is prepared as an upside-down cake and then generously drizzled with a very simple cream cheese glaze. You can use fresh cherries if they are in season or simply use frozen as I did here.

Use fresh or frozen cherries in this recipe.
The moist buttery cake is so delicious when combined with the sweet cherries and luscious cream cheese glaze. A cake this good shouldn’t be limited to brunch though, I think it would make a spectacular dessert at any great home cooked meal.

Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze.
This is a cake that I love to use for special occasion bunches too. It really impresses at Holidays like Easter or for Mothers Day.
A weekend brunch on the week of Valentine’s Day is also a very fitting occasion. Your sweetheart will love you for making this!
For even more delicious ideas for brunch, we have put them together into one amazing collection of our 25 Best Scone Recipes.
Originally published February 2013. Updated May 2020.
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Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze
Cherry Vanilla Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze - a most vanilla scratch cake baked on top of sweet dark cherries then glazed with cream cheese frosting. Delicious at a celebration brunch but good enough to serve as a decadent dessert too, especially while still warm.
Ingredients
For the Cherry Vanilla Cake
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 3 cups fresh or frozen pitted cherries
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1½ cups sugar
- ½ cup melted butter
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup whole milk, , at room temperature
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
For the Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
- 2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a standard Philadelphia brand block)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2-3 tsp milk
Instructions
- Grease and flour a 10 inch round cake pan very well and preheat oven to 355 degrees F. A large 9 or 10 inch tube pan or an 9x9 square baking pan can also be used.
- Toss together the ⅓ cup sugar and corn starch and sprinkle over the cherries. Toss together well and spread evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- To prepare the cake batter begin by sifting together the flour baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the eggs, sugar at high speed until very foamy.
- Mix together the butter, 2 tbsp vanilla extract and vegetable oil in a measuring cup with a spout.
- Slowly add this butter and oil mixture to the egg and sugar mixture as it continues to beat.
- Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk. When alternating wet and dry ingredients, always begin and end with the dry mixture. Here I folded in the flour in three divisions and the milk in two divisions.
- Pour the batter over the cherries in the baking pan.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The toothpick test is definitely the best way to ensure this cake is fully baked.
- Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack (or onto a serving plate if you plan to serve it warm).
- Remove the pan and allow the cake to cool down completely before drizzling on the glaze (or at least for 20 minutes if you plan to serve it warm).
To prepare the Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
- Beat all ingredients together very well in an electric mixer until very smooth. Add more or less milk to get the glaze to the proper consistency which should be relatively thick but not quite pourable.
- Spoon the glaze into a piping bag and drizzle over the cake. ( A Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off will work just as well.)
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
1 sliceAmount Per Serving Calories 386Total Fat 17gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 70mgSodium 221mgCarbohydrates 55gFiber 1gSugar 41gProtein 4g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Pauline Ann wilde
Sunday 5th of February 2023
Why is this cake called cherry vanilla COFFEE cake when there is no coffee in the ingredients
Elvira Niblett-Mowbray
Tuesday 9th of June 2020
Hi Barry. This looks lush and I am going to try out the recipe. The only thing I’m a little confused about, is where does the coffee in the title come in as there is not any coffee in the recipe??
Pearl
Tuesday 2nd of June 2020
what amount of vanilla goes in the cake and what amount goes in the frosting? there are 2 amounts listed in the frosting and non in the cake. ?
Rain Frances
Sunday 31st of May 2020
That looks delicious! Great job on the glazing!
Carol Bishop
Sunday 31st of May 2020
Are you suppose to use both pure vanilla extract and regular extract?