Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake
If there was one thing that I absolutely couldn’t live without, it would have to be this Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake. Life would be drab and boring without its soft, tender layers and creamy frosting. I love that cake is so versatile. It’s like a blank painter’s canvas, begging to be transformed and have its tender layers painted with exotic flavors.
This month, An and Lora Challenged the #BundtAMonth group to use cherries. I love cherries! You know spring has arrived when the beautiful scarlet orbs line the grocery store shelves. Brilliant reds, pale pinks, and black gems. Mmm, I love them all.
My aunt requests a cherry cake every year for her birthday in March. I don’t even bother to ask her what type of cake she wants to make her because it’s always the same answer–cherry! So, for my aunt’s birthday, and this month’s cherry themed #BundtAMonth, I’m making a chocolate cherry coke cake. Yum, right? My aunt is one lucky lady.
This was my very first attempt at a cake that was completely developed by me. Math was involved… A heck of a lot of math. So much math that I had a headache after adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying. I’m no math wiz (hence the degree in English), but I pulled through. Tah dah!
This Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake is fudgy and perfectly moist. It’s sweet, but not too sweet. Each bite includes a burst of cherries that pairs perfectly with the rich chocolate. My aunt gobbled it up!
The chocolate ganache is smooth and velvety. The cake is good with or without the ganache, but who can resist almond spiked ganache?
Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake
Ingredients:
Cake
- 1 and 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 13 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room-temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 large eggs, at room-temperature
- 1 cup cherry coke
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling
Ganache Drizzle
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup dark chocolate
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally grease and flour a bundt pan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until smooth (the mixture will be thick). Gently whisk in the cherry coke until just combined. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer attached with the paddle, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Whisk in vanilla and almond extracts.
- Turn the mixture down to low and slowly add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating and ending with the cherry coke mixture, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Whip the batter until smooth. Fold in the cherry pie filling.
- Transfer the batter to the bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack in the pan for 30 minutes; remove from pan and allow to cool completely before drizzling on the ganache.
- Ganache: Add heavy cream to a small saucepan. Heat the cream over medium-low heat and bring it to a boil. Take the cream off of the heat once it comes to a boil and add the chocolate. Whisk until smooth, then whisk in the almond extract. Drizzle the ganache over the cooled cake.
44 Comments on “Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake”
Your aunt IS a lucky lady. And I’m jealous, because I want some of this cake!
D’ya think it would work with Cherry Coke Zero? Because I actually have that in my fridge, and I want to make this cake.
Kim, you could totally use a cherry coke zero.
Michael is a big fan of cherry-and cherry coke. He’s prob. looove this!
I think Michael would really like this cake. It’s moist and fudgy.
I love Cherry Coke. This cake looks so decadent. Congrats on coming up with this winner all on your own!
Thanks, Stefanie! The math only took me about 2 hours :)
What a moist and delicious looking cake. It made me smile to think about cherry coke. My husband always gets one when we go to the theater to watch a movie. I’m thinking I need to surprise him with this cake sometime.
Renee, the movie theater has THE best cherry coke. It’s way better than the stuff in the can or bottle. That is too funny. You’re hubby knows his cherry coke.
Jennie….my favorite thing to bake is cake, too! And my hat is off to you for developing this luscious cake! Crazy good idea to add cherry coke to the mix! I can’t wait to try that…(thanks for doing all the math for me!). This cake looks absolutely luscious! : )
No one can resist a spiked ganache. That is the truth! My mom used to tell me about drinking cherry Cokes when she was a girl but they were always too sweet for me. But in a cake, sweet is good! I’ll bet this was a wonderful combination.
Surprisingly, this cake isn’t overly sweet. It’s just right. Thanks, Stacy!
Seriously jealous of your aunt my friend, this cake sounds brilliant :)
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Holy cow that cake is amazing!! I love chocolate and cherries together and this cake definitely fits the bill. Lovely!
I didn’t even know Cherry Coke was still around. I used to really like it and that you used it for our cherry theme…so love! Your bundt is so moist and decadent. LOVE the glaze, Jennie. Your lucky Aunt (happy birthday to her!). Thanks for being a part of our #BundtaMonth group:)
Thanks so much, Lora.
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I love how rich and chocolatey this is!
oh boy that looks good! I may have to try this with diet coke.
Oh, this looks SO heavenly! Chocolate + cherry is one of my favorite combinations + I love that you made it into a bundt. Perfection!
Thanks, Amy!
I know many people who are obsessed with cherry coke that would love this cake! I also want that chocolate ganache!
Thanks, Susan. The ganache is so good!
Ive seen coca-cola cakes before and have always been intrigued. Yours is stunning!! Wow, I would love to be your aunt and get this for my bday!
Thanks, Averie! Yeah, she’s a lucky lady.
Great job! Gorgeous!
Math – yikes! You conquered that math beautifully – and scrumptiously! I can’t begin to tell you how badly I want a slice (or three!) of this cake right now! Please? :D
Well done!!
Thanks so much, Valerie! Math is so not my strong suit. Quite frankly, this cake was a pleasant surprise.
Jennie, I’m in awe of you for creating this recipe – you’re amazing! I’ve always wanted to create my own but I just don’t have the time, plus the math will make my head explode because I suck at it, lol. This bundt looks incredible – so moist, dense, rich and almost fudgy inside. Brilliant move combining cherry coke with chocolate. I can’t wait to try this!
okay: Jennie, that is one crazy cake. Like legit crazy, in the way that you do crazy SO WELL. Cherry coke was my favorite soda growing up; i have no idea why i wasn’t a bajillion pounds back then, but somehow i managed to consume cherry coke regularly and be okay. I miss it. I may need to relive it with this cake.
What an amazing success for your first cake!! It looks so perfectly moist and fudgy. I would love to have a slice right now please!!
This is one amazing bundt cake, Jennie! Love the cherry pie filling, and the coke and the ganache! Pinning!
Can you use leftover coke for baking or do you need the carbonation? Would be a great way to use up the leftovers in the big bottles that go flat.
Yummy! The added cola to this cake is making my mouth water! Love the flavors in this cake.
Jennie this looks incredible! For some reason this feels retro to me, which I love!
I want an extra slice please!!! It looks seriously moist and fabulous:-) AND life without cake would be sooooooo not cool:-) Your cake looks fantastic! Hugs, Terra
I am dying to make this scrumptious looking cake but am unsure if you meant to say 13 tbsp.(?) of butter…
(3/4 cup + 1 tbsp.is the same amount but a snap to measure) Cherry coke is not sold in Canada so I might use an off-brand black cherry soda and hope that it’s a good substitute – any opinion on that?
Hi Helene! Thanks for visiting. I would just use an off-brand soda. The soda that you mentioned sounds like a good substitute. I used 13 tbs. of butter. Let me know what you think!
I finally got around to making this recipe with black cherry soda as a substitute for cherry coke and the cake is absolutely to die for! I can NOT leave it alone – it is THAT GOOD! I have a passion for cakes and have a lot of excellent recipes, but this one tops them all !! Thank you!
P.S. 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. DOES equal 13 tbsp. :-)
Hi Helene! Thank you so much for visiting. I’m thrilled that you love the cake. It was my first time developing a recipe using actual math. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. Happy baking!
Your bundt cake looks delicious and moist Jennie. I’ve recently joined the #bundtamonth group and have linked up my entry for April on your linky tool.
Do you drain the cherry pie filling or use all of it?
Hi Monica, The cherry pie filling doesn’t get drained. You’ll use it all. Happy Baking!
Making it tomorrow, I’ll let you know results. I am using semi sweet chocolate, should that work?”
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