There's a little luck in steam bending as well as experience. Cherry will bend but not as easily as white oak, ash or hickory. Also, green wood bends easier than dry wood. The wood should be straight grained. Hopefully you have more wood. You can always try the heat gun like Rob Macks does, steam longer or cut the wood thinner. You can also cut the wood thin enough where no steam is needed as Nick often does. Heat is what is needed not as much moisture. I too use a tea kettle with a tight lid that I soldered a pipe fitting on to that which runs into a pipe and believe me, that is hot. You can't put your hand near the end of the pipe where steam is coming out. I use gloves and you have to work very fast because as it cools in 20 seconds you can feel the wood stiffen up. It's good to have an inside form to bend it like a double thickness of plywood to the shape of the bend. I personally have never done bending with a gun.

Rob has some tips on his use of the heat gun and bending:

http://www.laughingloon.com/shop.tips.html

I also use white oak which is the easiest wood to bend. When it comes out of the steamer it's like rubber. Make sure that tea kettle is boiling like mad generating a tremendous amount of heat. I once tried a hot place under a kettle and it did not produce the boiling like a stove or now I have an electric tea pot that I got at a tag sale for a few dollars.