Cake of the week - National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day

I added 3 varieties of cherries to my favorite white cake recipe (store bought canned cherry pie filling, cherry preserves and maraschino cherries) I filled it with vanilla frosting and cherry preserves to fashion it in the same style as a chocolate covered cherry. I covered it in whipped cream to keep it light. I am not a fan of any sort of crunch when it comes to cake, so I ground up chocolate chips to add to the cake batter. I wanted to use a white cake recipe to honor the integrity of chocolate covered cherries. That’s right, integrity.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake

1 container maraschino cherries with stems on. Take out 12 cherries and place on a paper towel. Set aside

1/2 cup cherry preserves (I prefer Bonne Maman preserves and you should as well)

Before you begin, make sure to measure 1 cup of milk, 6 large egg whites and 12 tablespoons unsalted butter and let come to room temp. Ingredients blend together better and bake up better when they are at room temp. I prefer to bake my cakes the day before I fill and serve them, they taste so much better and are so much easier to cut. Just wrap them up in Saran Wrap and keep in fridge.

1 can cherry pie filling. Empty into a sieve and rinse the cherries. Take 1/2 cup of the cherries and place in-between of paper towels and gently press to get out as much moisture as possible. Cut the cherries up fine and set aside. (you won’t need all of the cherries that come from the can of pie filling, it’s up to you what you do with the extra cherries and it’s none of your business what I did with my extra cherries)

1/2 cup chocolate chips cut up as fine as those cherries and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray 3 - 6 inch round pans with Pam with flour or 2 - 8 inch round

Place in a bowl of a standing mixer;

2 1/4 cup cake flour, 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt

Using the whisk attachment on low speed, add in 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter (cut up and at room temp) Let it mix together until it resembles sand.

Slowly add in 6 large egg whites, 2 teaspoons Almond extract and 1 cup of milk. Mix together until very well combined.

Gently fold in the chopped up cherries and chopped up chocolate chips to the batter and bake 30-35 minutes (baking time can vary depending on your oven so give a check at 20 minutes) Check cakes once they are golden brown on the top with a toothpick, toothpick should come out clean.

Let cool in pans for about 15 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Vanilla frosting

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

pinch of salt

Using the paddle attachment of a standing mixer, cream the hell out of the butter, shortening and salt.

Scrape the bowl and add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat the hell out of it again.

Add 4 cups sifted powdered sugar, mix on low and add 1 teaspoon of milk as needed to thin it out. Be very careful to not add too much, you want the frosting to be the same consistency as peanut butter. Making sure to scrape the bowl and mix again. Keep in an airtight container at room temp.

Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with 1 Tablespoon of shortening, blend well and keep warm.

Whip 2 cups of heavy cream and 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract to medium stiff peaks. Be very careful to not over mix the heavy cream, when you assemble the cake you will be working the cream and it is very easy to over mix the cream, you’ll know its over mixed if it has small curdles in it. If this does happen, pour 1/4 cup heavy cream into the over worked whipped cream and gently whisk it, it’ll start to look pretty again pretty quickly.

Assemble the cake

Cut and level the cakes. Place about 1/4 cup of the frosting and spread evenly on the first layer of the cake. Spread about 3 Tablespoons of the cherry preserves on top of the frosting. Place next cake layer directly on top and repeat. Place the final cake layer on top and put in fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will just make it easier to finish to assemble.

Give a light crumb coat of frosting to the top and sides of the cake. (The crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting to pick up any crumbs and seal the cake together, so don’t fret if you get crumbs… in the crumb coat, that is what it is there for)

Place in the fridge for 30 minutes

Frost the cake with the whipped cream

Dip the maraschino cherries into the melted chocolate and place directly on to the cake. Place them in a circle, place them in a pile, make a pretty pattern, it’s your cake, place those cherries where ever the hell you want too.

Enjoy!