Cherry Chocolate Cake

Cherry chocolate cake takes the Black Forest combination of cherries and chocolate and turns it into a one-bowl tube cake. A can of cherry pie filling does double duty, providing both the fruit and most of the moisture, while a six-ounce bag of chocolate chips gives the cake its melty chocolate pockets. Cinnamon ties everything together with warmth.

This cake bakes a long time. The recipe calls for one to one-and-a-half hours, and that range matters. Tube and bundt pans cook from the outside in, and the heavy fruit-and-chocolate batter takes time to fully set in the center. Pull early and you’ll cut into a wet, gummy middle. Test with a long skewer in the deepest part, not just the side.

Fold the cherry pie filling in gently after the batter is mixed. Stirring it hard breaks down the cherries and bleeds the red filling into the batter, giving a streaky pink cake instead of clean cherry pockets.

Grease and flour the tube pan generously, getting flour into every detail. Tube pans are notoriously sticky, especially with a sugar-and-fruit-heavy batter. One missed spot is all it takes to tear the cake on release.

Cool only ten minutes in the pan before turning out, as the recipe specifies. Longer and the trapped steam softens the crust and the cake sticks; shorter and it tears under its own weight.

Pro Tips

• Use a quality dark cherry pie filling, not the cheapest grocery brand. Better filling means better cherries and a less sweet, more intense fruit flavor.
• Toast the chopped nuts on a sheet pan before folding in. Untoasted nuts taste flat in this rich, fruit-heavy batter.
• Wait until the cake is fully cool before dusting with powdered sugar. Hot cake melts the sugar into glaze instead of a snowy finish.

Variations

• Swap cherry pie filling for blueberry or raspberry pie filling for a different fruit profile.
• Add a teaspoon of almond extract with the vanilla for a stronger Black Forest character.
• Drizzle the cooled cake with chocolate ganache instead of dusting with powdered sugar for a richer finish.