Chocolate Cherry Cake – Modestly Looking, Surprisingly Good!

 Homemade, moist cherry chocolate cake that doesn’t need any chocolate icing to add flavor.  It has plenty on its own!

This chocolate cherry cake was one of the first chocolate cakes that I made as a “wife.”  I have this cherry chocolate cake recipe from my mom-in-law, who gave it to me just after the wedding.   This chocolate cake quickly became one of the favorites in my immediate family. 

My sister’s kids love this moist cherry chocolate cake as well, but she doesn’t make it very often.  The reason is that she doesn’t have a way to grind chocolate and if you ever tried to shred chocolate yourself manually, you will know that it is a very tedious process that leaves a  mess and very sticky, sweet hands. 

I found that small mechanical nut grinders work OK when you mix the chocolate pieces with the almonds.  You can also try using a blender or a food processor, but mix the chocolate with almonds to stop the blades from clogging.   I use my table top mixer with a grinding attachment and that works best for me. 

 

Note: If you are like my sister, I recommend whipping the egg yolks with sugar and rum, melting the chocolate with butter and mixing everything together.  Add the dry ingredients, whipped whites, and cherries and you should be good to go.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Ingredients:

1. 100g (3.5 oz) grounded bitter or bitter-sweet chocolate
2. 125g (4.4 oz) grounded almonds
   
3. 200g (14 tablespoons) butter
   
4. 180 g (3/4 cup and 2 ½ tablespoons) sugar
   
5. 4 large eggs
   
6. 3 tablespoons of rum
   
7. ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
   
8. 100g (2/3 cup) oatmeal
   
9. 2 teaspoon baking powder (1/2 of an European baking powder bag ex. dr. Oetker)
   
10. 1 glass of sour cherries (around 500g - 1.1 lb of cherries)
    
11. 3 tablespoons of flour

 

Tip: If you would like to make this chocolate cake flourless, then use 3 tablespoons of almond flour instead of regular flour to coat the cherries.

 

Equipment:

1. 9 inch (24 cm) spring pan

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven at 170°C – 340°F

2.       Grease the pan with shortening ( it will prevent the dough to stick to the pan) and sprinkle couple tablespoons of oatmeal into the bottom of it.  Tap the pan with your hand to distribute the oatmeal.  It should cover the sides and the bottom, but it will not be everywhere as it is with flour. No need to line the pan with baking paper like I did. 

3.       Strain the cherries.

4.       Whip the egg yolks with sugar, add butter and mix for about 4 minutes.

5.       Add rum, cinnamon, chocolate, almonds, baking powder, and oatmeal and mix for about a minute.  Don’t forget to scrape the sides. 

6.       Beat the egg whites and using a spatula mix them with the chocolate dough.

7.       In a separate bowl, toss the cherries with flour and add to the dough using a spatula.  The flour prevents the cherries from sinking completely to the bottom.

8.       Pour the dough into the prepared form and bake at 170°C (340°F) for 60 minutes.

9.       Cool off the cake before unmolding onto a cake plate.

Note: This cake doesn’t need a lined baking pan because the top doesn’t need to be even.  It will have some bumps due to the cherries. 

Tip: You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar for added elegance.  My family doesn’t like that on this cake, so I didn’t do it. 

I hope that you will like my chocolate cherry cake recipe and if you do, please come back and give me some feedback or a comment, or a like on Facebook.

Big thanks in advance,

Barbara

PS.  You might want to take a look at these other great chocolate cakes with cherries or almonds:

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