Sorry....sinking cherries!

[Bogeyface]

I have a fantastic madeira cake recipe, really light and tasty, but it is too runny to support cherries.

Any ideas? I really want this cake with cherries in but I am worried that if I up the flour content it will make it claggy and dense.

I normally cut them in half, wash them, dry them then coat them in ground almonds, would quartering them work better?

Smaller might be better, they're quite heavy for such a fluffy sponge mix.
Could you instead keep the cherries whole and line the bottom of the tin with them?

Try coating in flour? I do this for a plum and pistachio cake.