Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 9-inch or 8-inch pan with unbleached parchment paper. Whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt.
With a stand mixer or hand held mixer, mix sugar and orange zest until aromatic, about 30-60 seconds. Add in eggs and mix on medium speed until lighter in color, about 3 minutes. With the motor running, pour olive oil into the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Add the vanilla and almond extract.
Stir in half of the flour mixture to the batter. Add all of the milk. Finish with the other half of the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Gently fold in the cherries with a spatula. You can also save a few and put them on the top of the batter once it's in the cake pan.
Transfer batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes for a 9-inch pan or 50-55 minutes for an 8-inch pan, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a cooling rack.
Cool completely and dust with pink powdered sugar if desired, using a stencil or not.
Notes
NOTES: If you’re nut-free, swap the almond flour for all-purpose flour. Vegan: for the eggs, try 9 Tbs. aquafaba (canned chickpea liquid) whipped with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar until it looks like shaving cream and fold in at the last step; any plant milk (soy and oat are my favorites for baking.) You may have success with Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, but I haven’t tried it. Lower glycemic: use half cane or maple sugar and half Lakanto or Whole Earth monkfruit/erythritol sweetener.
Recipe by Pamela Salzman at https://pamelasalzman.com/sour-cherry-almond-cake-recipe/