Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
If you like cherry desserts, you are going to fall in love with this moist and flavorful homemade Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
- Cherry and Chocolate are a great combination (See our Chocolate Cherry Cake and White Chocolate Cherry Cake too!)
- Three cake layers make for a nice, tall cake, and two layers of filling!
- Maraschino Cherries add a boost of cherry flavor, and make for such pretty slices!
- If you are look for ideas for summer cakes or birthday cake recipes, this is a great one!
- Everything is better with chocolate chips! We've made several chocolate chip cakes over the years, and this is one of our favorites!
As much as we love our original scratch Cherry Cake Recipe, the addition of mini chocolate chips and Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting takes this cake to a new level!
How to Make a Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
You can find the full, printable Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 3 (8 inch) round pans
- Flour Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt for at least 30 seconds
- Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, add the egg whites, cherry juice, milk, vanilla and cherry extract, and vegetable oil. Blend together with a fork
- Butter and Sugar: In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and beat at medium speed to soften. Add the sugar and continue to beat until lightened in color and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes, longer if using a hand mixer.
- Add approximately ½ of the flour mixture to the bowl, mixing on low speed until just blended. Add half of the wet ingredients and blend. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients (ending with dry) until blended. Do not over beat.
- Chopped Cherries: Reserve approximately 2 Tablespoons chopped maraschino cherries. Gently stir the remaining chopped cherries and mini chips into the batter.
- More Cherries and Mini Chocolate Chips: Once the batter is in the cake pans, sprinkle the reserved cherries over the top of the batter, and using a spoon push them just slightly below the surface of the cake batter. You can also sprinkle a few mini chips over the top as well and lightly press them in. Doing this will help to insure that the cherries and chocolate chips will be more evenly dispersed.
- Time to Bake! Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, when the cake springs back to the touch or a toothpick pulls out clean or with only a few crumbs attached, the cake is done.
- Cool: Allow the cake layers to cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
Mini Chocolate Chips
Mini chocolate chips add just the right amount of chocolate flavor without being overpowering.
We have a few more cakes that that have mini chocolate chips, including our Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Recipe, Chocolate Chip Cake (from scratch), homemade Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake!
I prefer the look of mini chocolate chips to the regular size, but more importantly, these lightweight chocolate chips are less likely to sink to the bottom of the pan.
Assembling the Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
Once our Cherry Chocolate Chip Layers were baked, I assembled the layers with a cherry cream cheese filling topped with a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips.
Decorating with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting
I frosted the cherry chocolate chip cake with a layer of our Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting, and then applied a small angled spatula to it to create a ridged buttercream design as I rotated the cake on a turntable.
You can work from the top edge of the cake to the bottom, or vice versa. This frosting technique is such a simple and easy one, I use it all the time. We just love the look of textured frostings, and it's such a forgiving decorative technique too!
- After texturing our cherry cream cheese frosting, I finished off the cake with a border of mini chips, and used a french tip to pipe our whipped cream around the cake. The maraschino cherries add a great pop of color!
We hope that you enjoy this cake recipe as much as we have! My husband and daughter have both declared that this will be their next birthday cake ;0) - Enjoy!
Love Cherry Cakes? We Have More to Share!
In addition to today's delicious recipe, we also have a great Cherry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake , Cherry Cake Mix recipe, and scratch Cherry Cake Recipe!
Here are a few more favorite cherry desserts that belong on your must-bake list. They would make wonderful celebration cakes or birthday cake recipes!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't miss our full collection of delicious cake recipes, which include favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!
We also have a great collection of cake decorating video tutorials for all sorts of occasions!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
Moist and Delicious Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake- this moist layer cake has so much flavor!
Ingredients
For the Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake Layers
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour plus 2 Tablespoons for dusting cherries
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
- 6 egg whites (180g)
- ⅔ cup (146g) cherry juice from a 10 ounce bottle of maraschino cherries (If you don't have enough cherry juice, supplement with milk or water)
- ¾ cup (172g) milk
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (4g) cherry extract (I used Watkins brand found at Walmart or online)
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- Maraschino Cherries from 10 oz jar (use all) chopped and dusted with 2 Tablespoons flour.
- ½ cup (92 g.) Mini Chocolate Chips (plus additional for sprinkling over filling)
Cherry Cream Cheese Filling and Frosting
- 2 sticks (1 cup) (226g) unsalted butter- Softened slightly
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (total weight 452 g)- We use full fat. (Reduced fat would make a softer frosting)
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (4g) cherry extract (*Pink coloring gel optional)
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
For the Whipped Cream Accents
- 1 cup (240g) heavy cream
- ¼ (29g) cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon (4g) Vanilla
Instructions
For the Cherry Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 3 (8 inch) round pans
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt for at least 30 seconds
- In another bowl, add the egg whites, cherry juice, milk, vanilla and cherry extract, and vegetable oil. Blend together with a fork
- In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and beat at medium speed to soften. Add the sugar and continue to beat until lightened in color and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes, longer if using a hand mixer.
- Add approximately ½ of the flour mixture to the bowl, mixing on low speed until just blended. Add half of the wet ingredients and blend. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients (ending with dry) until blended. Do not over beat.
- Reserve approximately 2 Tablespoons chopped cherries. Gently stir the remaining chopped cherries and mini chips into the batter.
- Once the batter is in the cake pans, sprinkle the reserved cherries over the top of the batter, and using a spoon push them just slightly below the surface of the cake batter. You can also sprinkle a few mini chips over the top as well and lightly press them in. Doing this will help to insure that the cherries and chocolate chips will be more evenly dispersed.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, when the cake springs back to the touch or a toothpick pulls out clean or with only a few crumbs attached, the cake is done.
- 7 ½ cups cake batter
- Works well for cupcakes
- Will hold up to fondant
For the Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
- Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
- Add the vanilla and cherry extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended (cover bowl with
- a towel to keep a cloud of powdered sugar from floating over your kitchen).
- Add the gel color at this point, increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy, approximately 1 minute, don't over beat.
- This frosting will pipe best when chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use, let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
- Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
For the Whipped Cream (You will have leftover-- you can half if you like)
- Chill the mixing bowl and beaters or whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Pour the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla into the chilled mixing bowl, begin beating on low speed gradually increasing to medium high speed.
- The cream begins to thicken (approx. 1 ½ minutes) and soft peaks form….peaks that slightly bend over. Watch closely as this happens quickly. Do not over beat or it will turn into butter.
To Assemble the Cake
- Place first layer of cake onto your cake base (or cake board) of choice. Spread first layer with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting, sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, and repeat.
- Frost the entire cake with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting. I had just enough to frost our 8 inch cake. I then piped whipped cream with a french piping tip and added maraschino cherries.
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Thank you BeBe, Its seem every time I bake with cake flour the cake layers are very dense. I like more of the fluffy layers.
I was wondering...if I made this cake and left out the chocolate chips, would it be the same cake as the other cherry cake recipe? Thank you.
Hi Paula, Yes, it would be the same and the other Cherry Cake recipe.
I'm new to the website and notice that you always call for 8" cake pans. Can you help me adapt this recipe for using 9" pans?
Hi Sandra, this recipe would work well for 9 inch pans also. The layers just will be slightly shorter. The bake time may be slightly shorter too....I would keep an eye on it during baking, the bake time could probably be reduced by about 5 minutes. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Is there a video of making the marks in the icing? I love this affect, just not sure how to get it!
Thanks!
Tried this one for this weekend. Mine is no where near as pretty as yours but it turned out nicely and was very good! Thank you for the recipe!
@Linda King- Thanks! I like to apply a coat of frosting and get it pretty smooth (with bench scraper or your spatula of choice)...then go back in with a small tapered icing spatula and touch it to the cake as you spin it on the turntable. You just move the position of the spatula gradually down with each rotation. I don't believe we have any free tutorials on this, but if you are a member of our site you can find it under "ridged effect". Hope this helps!
@Heidi- I'm so glad that you made it and liked it, the cake looks great!!
I want to make this cake for a friend's birthday next week. So pretty! I want to include the whipped cream around the edges like the picture shows. I'm wondering if it will be okay left out of the refrigerator for a few hours though during the party? Will the whipped cream run or fall flat from the cherry on top of it if I do that? Thank you! Very excited to taste this cake!
Hi Courtney, The cake has a cream cheese frosting so it will be refrigerated. I like to be on the conservative side so approximately 2 hours for the cream cheese and whipped cream. The whipped cream may begin to deflate a bit but I don't think it will fall flat from the cherry on top. The cake itself being cold will help to keep the frosting cool as it gradually warms. The warmth of the room will be a factor also, hopefully it is air conditioned. All should go well.
Thank you so much for your response! I think I will go ahead and use the whipped cream on top! I'm actually going to use my regular buttercream (flavored with the cherry extract) to frost it instead of the cream cheese frosting. I'm not quite sure how much cherry extract to add into the buttercream though...was just planning to wing it since I have never taste tested. Any suggestions? Vanilla extract PLUS the cherry? Just the cherry?
Hi Courtney, I am a little more worried about the whipped cream if it is going to be on a room temperature buttercream cake. You could refrigerate your buttercream cake until time to travel to the party. Another possibility is to use buttercream instead of whipped cream for the french tip piped decoration. It will give you the same look without having to worry about the whipped cream sitting out too long. Just save out about 1/2 cup buttercream ( you won't need much) then tint the remaining buttercream pink. Also, I think you will be fine using 1 teaspoon cherry extract and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in your buttercream, give it a taste test to see what you think. Sometimes it is difficult to find cherry extract, we bought ours at a Walmart grocery. The brand name is Watkins, you can also find it online.