Packed with rich chocolate and bright cherries, this Bundt cake is the perfect addition to your Christmas table.
Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake
Makes 1 (15-cup) Bundt cake
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 2 (4-ounce) bars semisweet chocolate, divided
- 1 (16-ounce) bottle chocolate syrup*
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup whole buttermilk
- 1½ cups pitted sour cherries, drained
- Glaze:
- 1 (4-ounce) bar semisweet chocolate, chopped
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- Garnish: maraschino cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°. Spray a 15-cup Bundt pan with baking spray with flour.
- For cake: In a microwave-safe bowl, heat 1½ bars (6 ounces) chocolate on high in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted and smooth (about 1½ minutes total). Stir in chocolate syrup until smooth.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. Roughly chop remaining ½ bar (2 ounces) chocolate; stir chopped chocolate, melted chocolate mixture, and cherries into batter. Spoon into prepared pan.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 30 minutes, loosely covering with foil to prevent excess browning, if necessary. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- For glaze: Place chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium-high heat. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate. Let stand for 2 minutes; whisk until smooth. Whisk in corn syrup; pour over cooled cake. Garnish with cherries, if desired.
Notes
*We used Hershey’s.
Find more holiday favorites in this year’s Holiday Baking issue.
This is an astounding cake whatever the time of year one chooses to bake it. Made it for a group gathering and everyone loved it. It is moist, dense and rich in chocolate flavor. However, I did make one adjustment. I’ve never seen a recipe using buttermilk and baking powder so I substituted baking soda for the baking powder and it came out perfect. Also used thawed frozen pie cherries, drained, which were a nice complement to the richness of the chocolate cake. Might bake it a few minutes less, but that is insignificant compared to how good it is.
Perfect recipe! It’s moist, chocolatey and lovely with fresh tart cherries. Like the previous reviewer said, the measurement of the baking powder is off- perhaps it was meant to be written as baking soda. I added more baking powder to help the cake lift. Thanks for this great cake!