Cherry Crown Cake

Very cruel of me to follow up a diet post with one of a luscious cherry cake!  However the cake is actually one I made for a Christmas dinner but didn't have the chance to shove it into the already 57 posts I did for December.  I thought it would be a great cake to serve for Valentine's Day or even President's Day if that's your thing!

This recipe is called "Cherry Crown Cake" and it was one of the winners from the 1965 16th Pillsbury Grand National Bake Off Contest.   

(click on image for recipe enlargement)

This cake is absolutely scrumptious!   The only problem I had with it was the frosting.  It did not make nearly enough to cover the entire cake, also it was very flimsy and didn't want to stay up on the cake.  The photo from the original recipe showing creamy stiff icing is a lie.  I happened to have some leftover cream cheese frosting in the freezer so I mixed the two together.  The cherry pie filling on the top was also trying to run down the sides so I piped a border on the edge to fence it in!  I would recommend doing the frosting first and then adding the top of cherries for this reason.
I just noticed!  The recipe says the can of cherry pie filling should be chilled!  That would have helped I bet!  And maybe I didn't let the frosting "completely cool" enough to Ann pillsbury's liking.....  But I'm too busy for all of these little nuances!  In the end the cake tasted divine, even if it didn't look just like the serving suggestion in the photo.