Almond Cake with Bay-Poached Queen Anne Cherries

If the combination of olive oil and dessert falls outside your comfort zone, I guarantee this cake will make you a total convert. This luscious specimen has the richness of a traditional pound cake but a more complex texture, all complemented by the haunting fruitiness of extra-virgin olive oil. Almond meal, or almonds ground until fine, gives it a delicate nuttiness. Completely addictive on its own, this cake is even better dressed up with fresh spring cherries scented with fresh bay and a tangy dollop of crème fraîche. These pretty, yellow- and pink-hued cherries are more commonly known as Rainiers, but I like this moniker better because one of the restaurants sits perched atop Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill. It’s essential to use fresh bay leaves in this recipe. Dried bay is too strong and will give the cherries an almost medicinal taste, not a quality I look for in a dessert.