Cherry Nut Cake -- Baked in the Spirit of Rosa's Christmas Table

Christmas season, year twelve. Forty-five tamale orders in El Paso. Plus — for the first time — tamale orders in Anapra. Lupita took twenty orders from the neighborhood, approximately four hundred tamales. The first Christmas tamales from Panadería Rosa Juárez. Rosa's tamales, made in Rosa's neighborhood, for Rosa's neighbors, by a woman Maria Elena trained, using a recipe that traveled from Anapra to El Paso and back to Anapra, and the traveling is the circle, and the circle is complete, and the completion is the Christmas.

Total tamale production: approximately twenty-six hundred across both bakeries. Two thousand two hundred in El Paso, four hundred in Anapra. Two cities. One recipe. Rosa's chile colorado pork. The assembly line: Yolanda, Graciela, Sofia, Leticia, and me in El Paso; Lupita and two helpers in Anapra. Seven women. Twenty-six hundred tamales. Rosa would say: that's a lot of tamales. I would say: that's a lot of Rosa.

Nochebuena: sixteen people. The biggest Christmas. The table holds the family that Rosa built — not directly, not personally, but through the recipes that fed the children that grew into adults that married and reproduced and the reproducing is the expanding and the expanding is the table and the table is sixteen people eating tamales on Christmas Eve, and the sixteen people are the evidence, and the evidence says: Rosa. Rosa built this. From a kitchen in Anapra. From nothing. Rosa built sixteen people and two bakeries and a dog named Concha and a grandson who eats conchas and a granddaughter who is three weeks old and gripping the world with the strongest grip in the world.

I made ponche de frutas — Rosa's Christmas punch, the seven tejocotes, the holy number. The ponche simmered and the kitchen smelled like December and like Rosa and like the twelfth Christmas of a bakery that started with eight tables and now has twelve tables plus four tables across the bridge, and the tables multiply the way the family multiplies, and the multiplying is the Christmas, and the Christmas is Rosa, and Rosa is the ponche, and the ponche is seven, and seven is holy, and holy is everything.

Every year after the tamales are wrapped and the ponche has simmered down to its last sweet, tejocote-dark hour, I need something for the table that holds its own next to all of that abundance — something with fruit, something with warmth, something that feels like it belongs to December. This cherry nut cake has been Rosa’s Christmas table dessert for years now: the cherries carry that same bright, jammy sweetness as the ponche, and the nuts give it the kind of weight that says celebration, not just dessert. Sixteen people ate tamales this Nochebuena — and every single one of them had a slice of this cake.

Cherry Nut Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups maraschino cherries, drained and halved (plus 2 tablespoons juice reserved)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 cup powdered sugar (for glaze)
• 2–3 tablespoons reserved cherry juice or milk (for glaze)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan or a 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3–4 minutes, until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
5. Alternate wet and dry. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until combined — do not overmix.
6. Fold in cherries and nuts. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the halved cherries and chopped nuts into the batter until evenly distributed.
7. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50–55 minutes (9x13) or 55–60 minutes (Bundt), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden.
8. Cool. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack (if using Bundt) or leave in the pan to cool completely.
9. Make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar and reserved cherry juice (or milk) until smooth and pourable. Drizzle over the cooled cake.
10. Serve. Slice and serve at room temperature. The cake keeps well covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg