Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake

My favorite cake as a child was black forest cake. Chocolate cake frosted with whipped cream and syrupy cherries. This cake is inspired from my childhood favorite but uses fresh cherries which are baked with the chocolate cake and frosted with a creamy chocolate nut butter frosting.

I had mentioned when I posted my cherry pecan salad that I had never tasted fresh cherries growing up in India. When I moved to the United States, I was thrilled to see fresh cherries in the grocery stores and farmers markets during summer. Heck, if you’re lucky to live close enough to cherry orchards (like I am), you can even go pick some off the tree yourself. And if you pick a huge bucket full of cherries like I usually do, you have to find ways to consume them before they go bad. That’s when recipes like this one help 🙂

The only effort intensive piece of this recipe is having to pit the cherries. But my OXO cherry pitter made it a breeze and within 2 minutes, this step was done.

This cake is adapted from Ina Garten’s chocolate cake recipe. For years, I used to bake using The Barefoot Contessa’s tried and tested recipes which always called for a lot of eggs. I don’t use eggs anymore, but find that they are not needed to make cakes moist and fluffy. The addition of coffee to the cake batter enhances the chocolate flavor and paired with the cherries, makes for a rich and decadent cake. I make two versions of the cake while perfecting the recipe – one with all purpose flour and one with whole wheat pastry flour. The whole wheat pastry flour version tasted better in my opinion, but it did increase the baking time a little. Then I added the easy frosting to the yummy cake, cut and served a slice to my daughter, and received a thumbs-up sign after the very first bite.

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake

Recipe by theplantpaletteblogCourse: DessertDifficulty: Medium

Servings

8

slices

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

A moist chocolate cake filled with cherries and topped with a creamy chocolate nut butter frosting

Ingredients

• Cake

• 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 1 cup brown sugar/turbinado sugar

• 1/2 cup soy milk or almond milk

• 1/4 cup applesauce

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 2 tablespoons white vinegar or apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (or 1 tablespoon instant coffee mixed with hot water)

• 2 cups fresh cherries, pitted (see notes)

• Frosting

• 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (see notes)

• 1/4 cup cashew butter or almond butter

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoons water

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
• Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside for 5 minutes until it curdles slightly.
• Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
• Add the sugar, applesauce, oil, vanilla and almond extract to the milk-vinegar mixture and mix well.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry and run a hand mixer at medium speed (or stand mixer with the paddle attachment) to combine well.
• Reduce the speed to low, add the hot coffee and continue to mix until well combined.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan and top with the cherries gently. You don’t need to mix. The cherries will sink into the batter on their own.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely.
• For the frosting:
• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat or in the microwave for a minute (in 20 second intervals) until fully melted.
• Gently whisk in the nut butter, powdered sugar and vanilla and water until well combined. Add a little more powdered sugar to the frosting if it is too runny.
• Spread on top of the cooled cake.
• Slice the cake, serve and enjoy!

Notes

• I used this pitter for the cherries which made it very easy to pit the cherries.
• I used Trader Joe’s 85% dark chocolate bar for the frosting, but you can use any kind. You may need to add more powdered sugar if you go for a higher percentage dark chocolate. You can also use dark chocolate chips.