Today marks the finale of The Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies. And I couldn’t think of a better send off than with these Cherry Cake Squares. A dense sweet cake filled with chopped maraschino cherries. The perfect Christmas treat.
I can’t believe we’ve come to and end of the Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies. It’s been a fun ride and I hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as I have. If I had more time, I would have shared even more recipes. But there’s only so much time in a day and only so many treats we can eat! But I really have enjoyed this baking venture and sharing it with your all. I think come January, it will be all leafy greens…hahaha.
What are These Cake Squares Like
- Difficulty – These squares are pretty easy to make and they come together in about 40 minutes
- Taste – If you love pound cake, you’ll love these little cake squares. Almost like a sweet pound cake texture filled with maraschino cherries.
- Serving – This recipe makes 25 cake squares.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cups plain flour
- 1 Teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 3/4 Cups white sugar
- 3/4 Cups butter room temperature and cut into cubes
- 3 eggs large
- 4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Cup maraschino cherries divided
- Powdered sugar for dusting the cake
Instructions
- First thing you’re going to do is combine all the dry ingredients. Do this is a large mixing bowl. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix really well until it’s completely combined.
- In a separate medium sized bowl, whisk the eggs and add the vanilla and milk. Whisk to combine well.
- Add all the butter and half of the mixture to the dry ingredients. With your mixer on medium speed, mix until it starts to moisten. Add the remaining egg mixture.
- Continue to mix on a medium speed until the batter becomes smooth and somewhat fluffy like you see here. This will take about 2 – 3 minutes.
- Stir in the chopped cherries and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until when a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.
Important. Check the cake at around the 20 minute mark to see if it’s browning too quickly. If so, have ready a sheet of aluminum foil to place over the top of the cake to finish the baking. Don’t remove the cake from the oven. Just gently toss it over the top. It doesn’t need to be secured, as long as it’s covering the top is fine.
- Remove the cake from the oven and place the baking tray on a cooling rack. Leave it there for about 10 minutes to cool. Then remove the cake from the cooling rack and peel off parchment paper. Place the cake on the wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the cake has cooled, cut into squares. I cut the cake into 25 squares.
- Now to make them look a little festive. Using a sieve, dust the tops with powdered sugar. Then place a cherry piece in the middle of each square. Done.
- You could always frost these with buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting if you want them a big extra. You can find a recipe for Buttercream in this recipe just ignore the cookie part. As well, you can find the recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting in this recipe. And again, just ignore the carrot cake part of the recipe.
Whatever topping you choose, these are a great holiday treat. Again, they are a great addition to a cookie platter. I find it’s nice to have a mix of bar cookies, cake squares, drop cookies, no bake, etc when putting together a platter. That way, there is something to suit all taste buds.
If you’re looking for more cake square ideas, I’ll share a few links here of some other great ones that would make for great baking this season.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Squares, Pumpkin Spice Squares, Chocolate Chip Lemon Squares, Lamingtons, Raspberry Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies and Cream Cheese Brownies. All of these would also make a great addition to the cake square theme this holiday season.
Equally, check the Sweets section of the blog for lots more baking inspiration.
Well, my dear friends and readers, that will be all for the Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies for this year. It’s been fun but I’m ready to hang up the cookie apron in search of something on the savoury side of things. The thing about baking this many treats, is you just don’t want to eat them! Okay, not completely accurate as I had my share this past month or so. But I just might be craving cheese and ham.
Okay, so today’s song has to be Bing Crosby’s Mele Kalikimaka because it’s great. And from the best Christmas movie of all time. I’m not really into old classic Christmas movies. But give me National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and I’m happy. A family watching tradition every single year.
Have a wonderful baking season and I’ll see you back on the blog before Christmas to sign off for 2019.
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Cherry Cake Squares
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cups plain flour
- 1 Teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 3/4 Cups white sugar
- 3/4 Cups butter room temperature and cut into cubes
- 3 eggs large
- 4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Cup maraschino cherries divided
- Powdered sugar for dusting the cake
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line an 8 x 8 inch pan with parchment paper.
- Drain the maraschino cherries and blot them with paper towels to remove any excess liquid. Roughly chop half of the cherries. Cut the remaining cherries in half. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir well until combined, about a minute.
- Add the chopped butter and about half of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix on a medium speed until the dry mixture starts to moisten. Increase speed to high and continue to mix until it starts to become smooth, about 1 -2 minutes. Add remaining egg mixture and mix well for about a minute.
- Stir in the chopped cherries.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Check at about 20 minutes to see if the top is browning too quickly. If so, loosely put foil over the top to finish the baking.
- Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and peel off parchment paper. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
- When cooled completely, dust with powdered sugar, top with extra cherry halves and cut into squares.
- Will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon!
