I love cherries and chocolate together, which you might know if you’ve seen my Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookie. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I usually cheat and make this cake with a boxed mix and a can of cherry pie filling. I’m pretty sure that’s the ultimate food blogger no-no. This time I decided to go all out and make a chocolate cake from scratch, and I don’t think I’ll be using the box anymore.

Cherry chocolate cake with buttercream icing.

This cake is so light and fluffy—it’s amazing. I didn’t want it too sweet either, and it actually isn’t too sweet at all. I opted for some good quality canned sweet cherries instead of my normal cherry pie filling, and they worked out great. You can use whichever you want; they’re both delicious. This recipe also works great as a round cake. Just split the batter between two 9″ round cake pans and reduce the time in the oven by about 10 minutes.

📋 Recipe

Chocolate Cake with Cherry Filling and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This cake is so light and fluffy—it’s amazing. I didn’t want it too sweet either, and it actually isn’t too sweet at all.

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Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 1

Servings: servings

Calories: 759kcal

Author: Ben Rayl

Ingredients

for the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brewed coffee - hot
2 cans sweet cherries - pitted 15oz each

for the icing:

1 cup butter - softened
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup milk
1 lb powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

for the cake:

Preheat oven to 350º F and grease and lightly flour a 9x13" casserole dish.
Put the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together until combined.
In a separate bowl, put the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract and use an electric mixer to blend together.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry and use your mixer to blend until combined. With the mixer running, add the hot coffee and mix on high speed for about 1 - 2 minutes.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick test comes back clean.
Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.

for the icing:

Use your electric mixer to cream together the butter and cocoa powder. Add the milk and powdered sugar in 3 separate additions, blending until combined, then mix in the vanilla.
If the frosting is too dry, you can add a tablespoon of milk at a time until it reaches the perfect consistency. If it's too wet, you can add a little more powdered sugar at a time until it reaches the perfect thickness.
When the cake is completely cooled, use a large serrated knife to cut in in half horizontally.
Drain the can of cherry pie filling in a strainer, and shake it a bit to remove most of the juice. Spread a thin layer of icing over the top of the inside layer of the cake, then spread the drained cherries on top. Replace the top layer of the cake and spread the remaining icing across the top and sides.