Black Cherry Cake

This is just half of what I baked. The recipe, for sharing with you, below, is for a 13" x 9" pan. I had used two 9" round ones instead, hoping to stack one cake on top of another. But in my hurry, I didn't wait long enough for the first of the two pans to cool completely before inverting it onto a plate, and parts of it came apart.

It was a good thing we still had the other pan, and with cherries in season, I simply used up all eight of the fresh fruit we had left in our fridge, to dress the cake up without much fuss. Then together with the "Happy Birthday" candles, it looked pretty OK. Phew!

This is a straightforward recipe that I've relied on again and again, and you may have come across it on my old blog. Because it makes use of a boxed Devil's Food cakemix, it's a time-saver than if I need to gather the dry ingredients from scratch. And my trusty handheld electric mixer, that's good enough for my simple cake-baking experiments now and then, never fails to do the trick of mixing the wet ingredients in.

Such one/two-step recipes, makes it possible to have dessert baked at the same time a dinner of say, chicken, or pork, is also being cooked in the oven. Now, why not?

You can serve the cake on its own, or with icecream, the way I always like mine! The cherry pie filling adds a nice flavour to an otherwise plain Devil's Food Cake.

Recipe for Black Cherry Cake
Source: Sue Cook

1 box Devil's Food cakemix

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk

1 can cherry pie filling

Powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 350 deg.
• Beat together the cakemix, eggs, vegetable oil, and milk (an inexpensive handheld electric mixer will work nicely for this).
• Stir in cherry pie filling.
• Bake in greased 13" x 9" pan for about 45 to 55 mins, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

What works for us

• This is a cake I normally bake at least a day ahead. Because when the cherry pie filling gets a chance to age a little, it's less sour and the sweetness is enough not to need any powdered sugar frosting.
• If refrigerating the cake first, I learned (from not such a good experience), to wait to sprinkle on the powdered sugar, because the moisture from the cold air will only cause the sugar to dissolve and leave unsightly patches on the cake.
• In place of powdered sugar, another way we've enjoyed ours, was when I just let the kids squirt coloured icing on top of the cake, to decorate it as they like.
• I sometimes bake this as cupcakes, so the individual servings are already apportioned in that sense.

But really, no hard and fast rules, and do let me in on what works for you, too! =)