Place a rack in the centre of your oven and preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan, line it with parchment paper and grease the sides and paper with butter.
Rinse the cherries well. Set aside 15 cherries for the top of the cake.
Pit and quarter the rest of the cherries. If you have a cherry pitter then this will be a much quicker task. If not, you can use a small paring knife to cut around the cherry, split it in half and remove the pit with your fingers.
Take the 15 cherries you set aside and pit and halve them. Keep them apart from the quartered cherries.
Place the halved and quartered cherries on separate sheets of paper towel, cut side down. This will help absorb the extra juices.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, combine butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time beating just until combined.
Add the sour cream and almond extract and beat until mixed. The batter will look slightly curdled at this point but that’s ok.
With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the flour mixture and beat just until the flour is mixed in.
Add the quartered cherries to the batter and fold in with a rubber spatula.
Evenly spread the batter into the pan and then arrange the halved cherries (cut side down) on top of the cake.
Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to room temperature.
If desired, you can dust the cake with a bit of powdered sugar once the cake has cooled.
Notes
Pure almond extract imparts a delightful flavour to your baked goods. Be careful when measuring, a touch goes a long way.
This cake has fresh cherries mixed in the batter but is also studded with additional halved cherries. Adding some halved cherries to the top of the cake before baking ensures there are cherries throughout the cake and that they don't all sink to the bottom.
If you don't own a cherry pitter, you can use a small paring knife to cut around the cherry, split it in half and remove the pit with your fingers.