My friend came back from visiting her aunt in Portland last fall and would not stop texting me about this chocolate cherry cake she'd tried at some farmers market there. "It's like Black Forest cake but better," she kept saying, which made me roll my eyes because Rachel says everything is better when she's traveling. But then she showed up at my house one Saturday with a slice she'd convinced the vendor to pack in a cooler for the flight home
Why You'll Love This Chocolate Cherry Cake Recipe
Back making this for birthdays, dinner parties, and even bringing it to our neighborhood potluck where it disappeared in under 20 minutes, I know exactly why this cake wins every time. The chocolate cherry cake stays moist and fudgy for up to four days-I've tested it because there's usually leftover cake hiding in my fridge. The cherries add these bursts of tart flavor that keep it from being too sweet, which means people actually go back for seconds instead of just being polite. And that ganache? It sets up just enough to slice cleanly but stays soft and creamy, not hard and waxy like store-bought frosting.
What really sold me is how impressive it looks compared to how easy it actually is. Rachel and I might have made seven test cakes to figure it out, but now I can throw this together in about 30 minutes of active work. Oliver loves helping pit the cherries and licking the ganache spoon. My sister requested it for her birthday instead of anything from a bakery. Even my mother-in-law, who's picky about desserts, asked me to make it for Christmas. This is that rare cake that works for casual Tuesday nights and fancy occasions-you just change up how you decorate the top.
Jump to:
- Why You'll Love This Chocolate Cherry Cake Recipe
- Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Cake
- How To Make Chocolate Cherry Cake Step By Step
- Smart Swaps for Chocolate Cherry Cake Recipe
- chocolate cherry cake for Variations
- Equipment for chocolate cherry cake
- Storing Your Chocolate Cherry Cake
- What to Serve With Chocolate Cherry Cake
- Top Tip
- The Recipe That Got Passed Down From Rachel's Aunt's Kitchen
- FAQ
- Time to Bake This Thing!
- Related
- Pairing
- chocolate cherry cake
Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Cake
See Recipe Card Below This Post For Ingredient Quantities
For the Chocolate Cake:
- All-purpose flour
- Dutch-process cocoa powder
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Salt
- Eggs
- Buttermilk
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla extract
- Hot coffee
For the Cherry Layer:
- Fresh or frozen pitted cherries
- Cherry juice
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Lemon juice
For the Ganache:
- Dark chocolate
- Heavy cream
- Butter
- Vanilla extract
Optional Toppings:
- Whipped cream
- Extra fresh cherries
- Chocolate shavings
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make Chocolate Cherry Cake Step By Step
Make the Cake Batter:
- Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl
- Whisk wet ingredients separately
- Combine wet and dry until just mixed
- Stir in hot coffee last
- Fold in half the cherries gently
Bake the Layers:
- Divide batter between two greased pans
- Bake at 350°F for 28-32 minutes
- Test with toothpick in center
- Cool in pans 10 minutes
- Turn out onto racks to cool completely
Make the Ganache:
- Heat cream until just simmering
- Pour over chopped chocolate
- Let sit 2 minutes without stirring
- Whisk until smooth and glossy
- Stir in butter and vanilla
Assemble the Cake:
- Top with remaining cherries and fresh ones
- Place first layer on serving plate
- Spread with half the cherry mixture
- Top with second layer
- Pour ganache over top, let drip down sides
Smart Swaps for Chocolate Cherry Cake Recipe
Cherry Options:
- Fresh cherries → Frozen
- Sweet cherries → Tart cherries
- Fresh → Canned pie filling
- Cherries → Raspberries or strawberries
Chocolate Swaps:
- Dutch cocoa → Natural cocoa
- Dark chocolate → Semisweet chips
- 70% cacao → 60% works fine
- Chocolate → White chocolate ganache
Dairy Alternatives:
- Buttermilk → Milk + 1 tablespoon vinegar
- Heavy cream → Coconut cream
- Butter → Coconut oil
- Regular milk → Oat milk or almond milk
Flour Changes:
- All-purpose → Gluten-free 1:1 blend
- Regular → Whole wheat pastry flour
- Standard → Almond flour
Coffee Substitutes:
- Coffee → Cherry juice
- Hot coffee → Hot water
- Regular → Espresso
chocolate cherry cake for Variations
Black Forest Style:
- Add kirsch (cherry liqueur) to cherry filling
- Use whipped cream between layers
- Top with chocolate shavings
- Add more fresh cherries on top
Triple Chocolate:
- Mix chocolate chips into batter
- Add cocoa powder to cherry filling
- Use milk chocolate ganache instead
- Chocolate overload in the best way
Almond Cherry:
- Add almond extract to batter
- Sprinkle sliced almonds on ganache
- Use amaretto in cherry filling
- Toast the almonds first
Mint Chocolate Cherry:
- Add peppermint extract to ganache
- Crush candy canes on top
- Keep cherry layer as is
- Oliver's Christmas request every year
Naked Cake Version:
- Skip the ganache completely
- Dust with powdered sugar
- Show off those cherry layers
- Looks rustic and impressive
Equipment for chocolate cherry cake
- Two 9-inch round cake pans
- Parchment paper
- Large mixing bowl
- Electric mixer
- Small saucepan
- Offset spatula or butter knife
- Wire cooling racks
Storing Your Chocolate Cherry Cake
Room Temperature (2 days):
- Cover loosely with foil or cake dome
- Don't refrigerate right away
- Ganache stays soft and sliceable
- Keep away from direct sunlight
Refrigerator Storage (5 days):
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap
- Let come to room temp before serving
- Ganache firms up but softens again
- Cherry filling stays fresh longer
Freezer Storage (3 months):
- Wrap individual slices in plastic wrap
- Place in freezer bags
- Thaw overnight in fridge
- Ganache might look dull but tastes fine
Make-Ahead Tips:
- Assemble day of serving for best results
- Bake layers up to 2 days ahead
- Wrap tightly and refrigerate
- Make cherry filling 3 days ahead
What to Serve With Chocolate Cherry Cake
This cake is rich enough to eat on its own, but vanilla ice cream is pretty much required at our house. Cold ice cream melting into warm ganache creates this chocolate-vanilla-cherry thing that beats any of those flavors by themselves. Whipped cream works if you want lighter, and black coffee cuts through the sweetness so you can actually eat more than one piece. Oliver demands cold milk every time, which honestly makes sense with chocolate cherry cake this intense.
When I made this chocolate cherry cake for our block party last summer, I put out bowls of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream so people could pick. Watching everyone argue about which was better became its own entertainment. Rachel picks ice cream every single time, I only do whipped cream, and Oliver loads up both like nobody's watching. For fancier dinners I'll throw some fresh cherries on the plate or drizzle raspberry sauce around it, but usually? Just cake and something cold is plenty.
Top Tip
- Here's something Rachel's aunt finally told us after we'd made six failed cakes: add a quarter cup of cherry juice straight into the chocolate cherry cake batter, not just the filling. I thought she was messing with us because it sounded too easy, but when we tried it on our seventh attempt, everything made sense. That cherry juice doesn't make the cake taste like cherry-it makes the chocolate cherry cake taste more chocolatey and adds this barely-there tang that makes people go "wait, what's in this?"
- The other thing I figured out by accident? Don't drain your cherries all the way before folding them into the batter. Leave about two tablespoons of that syrupy stuff with them. It creates these little pockets of intense cherry flavor throughout the chocolate cherry cake that pop when you bite in. Rachel thought I'd lost it when I suggested keeping the juice, but after she made it for her sister's birthday, she texted me at 11pm like "fine you were right." Now we both do it every single time.
The Recipe That Got Passed Down From Rachel's Aunt's Kitchen
Aunt finally cracked after we'd been sending her photos of failed cakes for two months. We were on speaker phone in my kitchen making batch number nine when she just gave up and told us everything. "Add cherry juice to the batter, not just the filling. And you need Dutch cocoa, not regular." She said she'd learned this from a vendor at a Portland farmers market back in the 90s who wouldn't share the recipe, so Aunt Linda bought slices for two years and reverse-engineered the whole thing in her own kitchen. "The cherry juice makes the chocolate taste more like chocolate," she explained
That one phone call saved us from making batch number ten and probably batch eleven too. Everything Aunt Linda said was right-the Dutch cocoa, the juice trick, keeping the cherries slightly wet. Now when I make this chocolate cherry cake, I think about her spending two years obsessed with cracking someone else's recipe. Rachel says baking obsession runs in their family. Based on how many test cakes we made, I'm starting to think she's not wrong.
FAQ
Do chocolate and cherry go together?
Chocolate and cherry have been a thing forever-Black Forest cake is proof. The tart cherries balance out all that chocolate richness so it doesn't feel heavy. In this chocolate cherry cake recipe, the cherries give you that brightness that makes you go back for another bite instead of feeling like you ate a brick.
What is the secret to moist chocolate cake?
Use oil instead of butter, and add hot coffee to the batter. Oil keeps cake moist way longer than butter does, and hot liquid makes the cocoa taste more intense. Also, don't overbake it-take it out when your toothpick has a few moist crumbs stuck to it, not when it's totally clean.
What is the chocolate cake with cherries?
Black Forest cake from Germany is the famous one-chocolate layers with whipped cream and cherries soaked in kirsch. This chocolate cherry cake recipe is easier though. Same chocolate and cherries but with ganache instead of whipped cream, so it holds up better and you don't need fancy liqueur.
How do you keep cherries from sinking in a cherry cake?
Toss your cherries in a tablespoon of flour before you fold them in. That coating helps them float in the batter instead of dropping straight to the bottom. And don't overmix-just fold a few times and stop. Let them sit wherever they land.
Time to Bake This Thing!
Now you've got everything to make this chocolate cherry cake that tricked my husband's boss into thinking I actually knew what I was doing. From Rachel's aunt's cherry juice trick to that ganache that looks way fancier than it is, this cake has bailed me out more times than I can remember. Works for panic dinner parties, real celebrations, or just Tuesday when chocolate cherry cake feels necessary.
Want more desserts that look hard but aren't? Our Black Forest Trifle uses these same flavors but skips all the layering stress. Try our Death by Chocolate Cake when you need pure chocolate with no fruit, or make our Fresh Cherry Pie Recipe when cherries are actually in season. Our chocolate cherry cake Lava Cakes give you that same "wow" reaction but in little individual cups!
Show us your cakes! . We love seeing everyone's different decorating styles!
Rate this recipe and let us know how it went!
Related
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Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with chocolate cherry cake
chocolate cherry cake
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Pit the cherries, cook with sugar and lemon juice, thicken with cornstarch, and cool completely.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly mixed.
- Mix eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and cherry juice in a separate bowl until smooth.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients, add hot coffee, and gently fold in half the cherries.
- Divide batter into pans, bake at 350°F for 28-32 minutes, and cool on wire racks.
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