This is a tradition from my wife's side of the family. But we now make our own candied cherries. (Store-bought candied cherries do work too.)
We sometimes do the candied cherries and chopping the day before the baking.
We begin by making candied cherries. During the summer we freeze pitted cherries in quart bags. For these cherry chip cakes we scale up David Lebovitz's recipe.
In a large saucepan (because it will bubble) bring to a boil:
Reduce the heat so the cherries are cooking at a low rolling boil. When the initial liquid has reduced by half, begin stirring frequently to make sure the cherries are cooking evenly and not sticking. An additional 10 to 20 more minutes of simmering will be needed for the liquid to become sticky syrup.
Remove the pan from the heat and cool the cherries to room temperature.
Chop into small pieces (the size of big chocolate chips):
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, sift before measuring:
Stir into the sifted flour:
Next stir in:
In a second mixing bowl, beat:
Stir into the eggs:
Finally, fold the egg and sugar mixture from the second bowl into the first bowl.
We use several sizes of loaf pans, depending upon how many loaves we are giving as gifts and how many we are bringing to family meals.
Use a parchment paper liner, as well as spray oil, when baking in metal loaf pans. Silicon loaf pans do not need the liner.
Fill loaf pans about 2/3 full.
Place a casserole dish with water on bottom oven rack while baking the cakes.
Bake small loaf pans 45 to 50 minutes. Bake large loaf pans 60 to 80 minutes.
Cool slightly before trying to move cakes from the loaf pans to a cooling rack.
After the cakes are cool, wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in the refrigerator.