17 chocolate cherry cake recipes

German sour cherry chocolate cake: a dense, fudgy chocolate cake crowned with tart pitted cherries that sink into the batter as it bakes. The sharp cherries cut the rich dark chocolate beautifully.

Schwarzwalder kirschtorte (Black Forest cake): a three-layer German chocolate-almond sponge soaked in kirsch, filled with whipped cream and sour cherries. The classic Schwarzwald showpiece.

Buttermilk chocolate quick bread studded with pecans and maraschino cherries, baked in mini loaf pans and topped with a creamy cherry glaze. A rich, fudgy bread that's more dessert than breakfast.

Cherry-stuffed cookies wrapped in almond-vanilla dough and dipped in dark or white chocolate. A surprise maraschino cherry hidden inside each one.

Cherry-stuffed cookies dipped in white and dark chocolate with chopped pecans. Each cookie hides a whole maraschino cherry inside a tender dough shell.

Soft chocolate drop cookies packed with maraschino cherries and topped with a glossy chocolate frosting. Buttermilk keeps them tender. Makes 4 to 5 dozen in about 30 minutes, so they're built for holiday cookie trays and bake sales.

Vegan Black Forest cake with whole wheat pastry flour, applesauce, and a kirsch syrup. Cashew-tofu icing replaces dairy whipped cream. Three layers of chocolate cake, cherries, and creamy frosting.

A moist chocolate cherry bundt cake made with cherry pie filling, chocolate chips, walnuts, and a hint of cinnamon. Mixed in one bowl, baked in a fluted tube pan, and dusted with powdered sugar.

Spumoni slice-and-bake cookies with three layered doughs: cherry pink, chocolate, and pistachio green with rum flavoring. A colorful Italian-inspired Christmas cookie.

Layered chocolate torte with a dried sour cherry and Marsala filling, coffee-soaked cake layers, and a cream cheese whipped cream. A multi-component holiday showpiece that tastes like Black Forest cake's sophisticated Italian cousin.

Kartoffel Torte is a German chocolate potato cake with mashed potatoes, cocoa, pecans, and maraschino cherries baked in a tube pan and drizzled with powdered sugar icing.

Chocolate banana split cake with cocoa-banana layers, fresh sliced bananas, homemade chocolate sauce, whipped topping, and a cherry on top. No butter, no egg yolks.

Upside-down chocolate cake baked over a brown-sugar caramel with apricot halves and maraschino cherries. Cocoa-rich cake flipped onto the platter for a glossy fruit top.

Cherry cake mix cookies dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled with toasted almonds. A clever shortcut treat that looks bakery-fancy with under 10 minutes of hands-on work.

Mother's fruit cake is a brandy-soaked holiday classic with cherries, apricots, pineapple, peel, raisins, and currants bound in a spiced chocolate-scented batter. Baked slow and aged for two months.

Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte is the authentic German Black Forest cake: three genoise layers soaked in kirsch syrup, filled with kirsch buttercream and sour cherries, and draped in whipped cream with chocolate curls.