Mom’s Cherry Pie Cake
From the Series: Recipes She Left Behind
Tucked into a spiral-bound notebook, my mom left behind more than just ingredients and instructions—she left a legacy. Some recipes are scrawled in pencil, others marked in ink, all of them shaped by the warmth of her kitchen and the community around her. This series revisits those handwritten treasures, one dish—and one memory—at a time.
Mom always planned to make a cookbook of her favorite recipes for her three girls. Unfortunately, she never got around to it—except for this one, which I inherited.
It's in her handwriting—some entries scrawled in pencil, others more deliberate in ink. Faded splatters and brown stains tell the story of a well-loved kitchen companion. The pages are soft at the edges, some torn or dog-eared, and a few are barely hanging on. The metal spiral binding is bent and warped in places, no longer holding everything neatly together. It's clear this book lived on the counter and survived spills of batter and gravy. It’s fragile now, but full of history.
What touches me most about this booklet is how she often noted the name of the person who gave her a recipe, like a culinary family tree, branching out with friends and neighbors.
There’s Marianne Clayton’s mother, who shared the Almond Roll Cookies. Marianne herself gave Mom her Toffee Squares, which I still remember fondly. Mary Schmaltz contributed her Toffee Bars, and Mable Van Stone passed along her Oatmeal Macaroons. Brink Small shared a recipe for Oatmeal Crispies, and Reat Allen’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake also made it into the collection. Aunt Lena’s Fruit Cookies are included. Then there’s Mrs. Jarboe’s Wedding Cake Icing—Mrs. Jarboe was THE wedding cake baker in Evansville during the 1960s. I don’t believe Mom knew her personally, so that one probably came from the newspaper.
The front of the booklet features main dishes—meatloaf, beef stew, and one of my childhood favorites: Deviled Hot Dogs in “Frenchwise” barbecue sauce. Sadly, that dish would now give me indigestion. One I hated back then? Chipped beef in cream sauce. It looked as bad as it tasted. On the back page, at the top, she wrote “John” with a phone number—my brother’s. Where better to jot down his new number than in a recipe book?
Cherry Pie Cake
I’ve always loved anything with cherries, so it’s only fitting that I start with this one. Over the years, I’ve baked this sweet cherry treat many times. Mom titled it “Easy Cherry Upside-Down Cake,” but to us, it was always Cherry Pie Cake.
I’ve made some tweaks over the years. I ditched the shortening and red food coloring, trimmed back the sugar, and added a splash of vanilla to the topping. But the heart of it remains the same. Here’s my version:
Topping
1 can of cherries (or two cups of frozen cherries)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Cake
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Sauce
Juice of cherries
1/4 cup of sugar (or to taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch
Instructions
1. Make the topping:
Drain the cherries. In a saucepan, combine the cherries, ½ cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon butter. Heat until the sugar and butter are dissolved. Stir in the vanilla.
2. Prepare the pan:
Pour the cherry mixture into an 8- or 9-inch round glass pie pan.
3. Make the cake batter:
In a mixer, combine butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add ½ cup milk minus 2 tablespoons. “Mix until all is dampened,” says Mom. Beat for 2 minutes.
4. Add the remaining milk and the egg. Beat for 1 more minute.
5. Pour the batter over the cherry mixture.
6. Bake:
Bake at 350°F for 45–50 minutes.
6. Cool and invert:
Let the cake cool, then invert onto a platter to serve.
7. Make the sauce:
In a small pan, combine cherry juice, sugar, and cornstarch. Cook on low until the sauce thickens and turns translucent.
8. Serve:
Slice the cake and drizzle with warm cherry sauce.
Every time I make this dessert, I feel Mom is standing beside me. It might not look quite like hers—she always added a bit of food coloring to deepen the hue—but the taste takes me straight back to her kitchen. This cake is a connection to her and to those quiet moments we shared.
This looks absolutely delicious!
Yummy