Chocolate Cherry Cake

Peregrine likes baking too!

I have many happy memories of baking with my mom as a little girl. Since getting married I've enjoyed creating baked goods for my own family. My husband has a sensitivity to wheat, so I've had to learn to use alternate flours when baking for him. The following Chocolate Cherry Cake recipe is a blend of my mom's Dark Chocolate Cake and the Cherry Chocolate Cake Erik's mom always made for his birthdays. (And that won him a ribbon in a county fair when he was ten!) I had fun combining the two recipes and making this decadent, yet simple, gluten free chocolate cake for him. You can, of course, make it with regular flour and it's just as good!

Chocolate Cherry Cake

2 cups all purpose Flour (or 1 Cup Rice Flour, 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour and 1/2 Cup Potato Starch)
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
3/4 cup strong coffee
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 can (21oz) cherry pie filling, 1/4 cup reserved
1 package (8oz) cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
12 oz chocolate chips
1 C whipping cream

CAKE
1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour two 9 x 1 1/2-inch round pans; set pans aside. Allow cream cheese to soften at room temperature while you prepare the batter.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, coffee, and almond extract. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined, about two minutes.
4. Reserve 1/4 cup cherry pie filling. Mix remaining pie filling into wet ingredients. Add dry mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Divide batter into prepared pans.
5. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Prepare filling. Cool cakes on wire racks for 10 minutes before turning out of pans. Cool thoroughly on racks.

FILLING
1. In a small bowl mix reserved 1/4 cup pie filling, cream cheese, and vanilla.

GANACHE FROSTING
1. Heat cream in a saucepan until it begins to simmer. Remove from heat.
2. Pour chocolate chips into the cream and let stand five minutes.
3. Stir until cream and chocolate are thoroughly mixed and smooth.

To assemble cakes spread filling in between the layers and frost top and sides with Ganache. The above photo is a slight variation on the usual layers I do with this cake!
16 Servings