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Preheat the oven to 170C/160C Fan/Gas 3½. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin (approximately 13x23cm/5x9in) with baking paper.
Quarter the cherries, tip into a sieve and rinse under warm water to remove the sticky syrup. Dry well on kitchen paper and tip the cherries into a bowl, add the plain flour, mix well to coat and set aside.
Cream together the softened butter and caster sugar until really pale and light. This will take 3–4 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well between each addition.
Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix again to combine.
Sift the self-raising flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into the bowl
Add the ground almonds and milk and beat until smooth and thoroughly combined.
Fold the cherries into the mixture and spoon into the prepared loaf tin. Spread level with the back of a spoon.
Top with the remaining caster sugar and scatter with the flaked almonds.
Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 1 hour until the cake is golden-brown, well-risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. If the cake is browning too quickly loosely cover the top with a sheet of foil for the last 15 minutes.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then carefully lift out onto a cooling rack and leave until cold before slicing.