Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake

I was going through my jams and preserves before the tomatoes ripen and I start canning again.  I need to start dating my preserves, because I found a jar of cherry pie filling that is probably from July.  Home-processed canned fruits and vegetables have about a one-year shelf life unopened.  I decided to use up the jar this week, but what to make of it?  I wavered between turnovers (I still have some puff pastry dough in the freezer) and coffee cake.  After some deliberation and flipping through the Bible, I decided to merge two different coffee cake recipes on page 430 into an über-rich cherry cake.  (Wow, spell-check recognizes correct German spelling.  Who knew?)

As my roommate put it, "It smells like Christmas in here".

1/4 C butter + 2 Tb
1/2 C sugar + 1/4 C
1 C flour + 1/2 C
*1/2 C almonds
*1/2 C sour cream
2 Tb milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/2 tsp vanilla
*1 C (or 1 small can) cherry pie filling

1.  Grease 8x8 square baking pan.  Preheat oven to 350º.

2.  Cream together 1/4 C butter and 1/2 C sugar until fluffy.  Add 1 C flour, almonds, sour cream, milk, egg, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth and similar in texture to Toll House cookie dough, about 2 minutes.

3.  Spread cake batter in bottom of baking dish.  Layer on pie filling.  In a bowl, mix together remaining butter, flour, and sugar until coarse crumbs form.  Sprinkle over cake.

4.  Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before serving.

Serves about 8

Difficulty rating :)