Easy Chocolate Cake with Cherries

Moist and chocolatey cake with a hint of tangy cherry flavor, this fast, easy to make cake is sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

At some point in my life, along came this incredible chocolate cherry cake that quickly became a mainstay for holidays as well as the number one requested birthday cake during those special occasions.

As time went on, and the kids grew up and all went their own way, I was left with years that went by with no one to make and share this cake with. As much as I LOVE chocolate, I can’t consume an entire 9 X 13 pan of this decadent dessert.

I sat down one day to contemplate “halving” this recipe and decided too much uneaten cake would go to waste. Then it hit me. I could make a smaller cake and use the rest of the batter for cupcakes that I could individually freeze and take out at my whim.

This recipe will concentrate on making a small batch so in essence, the cake is split into two. I used a loaf pan for the main cake and placed the rest of the batter in cupcakes which I wrapped at frozen for a later date. How high you want your loaf cake to be is up to you, the batter grows 1.5-2 times.

I did the traditional chocolate stovetop frosting on the cake only because the edges of the pan need to be able to stop the flow of warm frosting prior to setting up. Because the cupcakes are more rounded I opt for a stiffer cream cheese frosting. 

Check out my Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. You can freeze the cupcakes individually and pull them out and defrost prior to frosting them.

Cherry Chocolate Cake Ingredients

• Chocolate Cake Mix in a Box: I specifically like to find a “fudge” or “dark chocolate” cake mix. The brand isn’t important. Don’t get a chocolate cake that has an additional chocolate fudge sauce packet since you are already adding cherries.
• Cherry pie filling: Look for a 21 oz. can of cherry pie filling. You may already have your favorite brand.
• Egg: I always buy the large size.
• Almond Extract: Adding almond extract is optional. Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don’t.
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar for the icing, it mixes well with the chocolate.
• Butter: Salted or unsalted is fine.
• Milk: Use 2% or whole milk, in a pinch 1% is fine.
• Chocolate chips: Semi sweet either in regular size or mini size.

How to Make this Delicious Cake

1. Preheat oven.
2. Grease bottom of loaf pan.
3. Place liners in cupcake tins.
4. Mix eggs, cake mix, almond extract.
5. Fold in cherry pie filling.
6. Distribute cake batter into a loaf pan and cupcake tin.
7. Bake then let cake cool. (Cupcakes will be done sooner than cake pan.)
8. Make icing.
9. Pour icing on cake.
10. Let icing set up before serving.
11. Freeze cupcakes individually.