A couple of years ago, I made such a decadent, moist, delicious chocolate cherry cake, that I had to share the details! I actually ended up making it again afterward, I just didn't go "all out" like the first time.
At my job at the time, I had been designated as the person to bring in a cake for anyone's birthday... ok, SELF designated, but I didn't hear complaints! I always asked what the "birthday person" wanted as their treat and though I typically got the answer "YOUR KEY LIME PIE!" on this occasion, I was told anything chocolate.
Well, lucky for them one of my favorite flavors is Cherry & Chocolate (I even mix Sam Adams Cherry Wheat & Chocolate Bock when it's available... just try it).
After asking my best friend for recipes (aka: Google) I discovered that you can make a delicious cake by substitute pie filling for the oil and water in a boxed cake mix. MIND BLOWN. I immediately decided on making a chocolate devils food cake with cherry pie filling and layering & coating it with dark chocolate ganache, one of my go tos. But I decided to kick it up a notch by coating the sides in sliced almonds and making my own chocolate ganache cherries.
Quick details:
Pearl hours: 2 hours
Start to Finish: 4 hours
Difficulty: Easy - Medium (depending on how far you take it)
Project thoughts:
This cake was AMAZING. It was easy, everyone loved it, it felt fancy and luxurious, but it wasn't all that much work. It was also super fun to make and there are so may variations you could do with it!
Pearl Tips:
- Don't have a cherry pitter? Use a chopstick & a glass bottle to remove the cherry pits (that link has other ideas to try too!
- When making ganache, remember that you heat the cream THEN pour over the chocolate to melt. You don't cook them together, you don't melt the chocolate and put it in the cream (my madre has done this a few times and has called me to ask why it curdled... so don't), you heat the cream. Just don't burn it!
Lessons learned:
- Pie filling subbed into cake is delicious and makes it so moist!
How I'd do it differently next time:
- Get better pictures