chocolate cherry cake

 this was tasty, from here.

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) hot water or coffee
• ⅓ cup (30g) cocoa powder
• 1 ¼ cup (150g) all-purpose flour, sifted will try with whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar  recipe called for 1 cup but just 1/3 was fine. 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup vegetable/canola oil**
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups (230g/8 oz) fresh cherries, pitted and halved (for other options, see notes)***
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• ½ cup  chocolate chips or chunks 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C and grease an 8×8-inch square pan or 9-inch round.  I used parchment paper. 

2. In a small bowl, whisk together hot water (or coffee) and cocoa powder until smooth. Set aside to let cool slightly until warm.

3. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

4. In another medium bowl, mix together eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and liquid-cocoa mixture. Add egg mixture into flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula just until combined. Do not overmix—the less you mix, the lighter the cake will be. It will be a slightly runny batter.

5. In a small bowl, toss cherries with 2 teaspoons flour in order to prevent cherries from sinking during baking. Add cherries and chocolate chips to cake batter and stir just until combined.

6. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (repeat testing if your toothpick runs into a cherry). The internal temperature of the cake should be 205℉ / 96℃ if using an internal thermometer. Allow cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Dust the top with powdered sugar or top with chocolate ganache.

8. Serve at room temperature. Cake can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Recipe Notes

*To make a bigger cake, multiply the recipe by 1.5 and use a 13×9-inch pan. You may need to bake the cake a few minutes longer.

**I used oil to keep the cake moist for longer, but you can replace half of it with 50g melted butter for flavor if you prefer. This would no longer make it a dairy-free cake. However, this cake is already so flavorful that I don’t find it necessary.

***Fresh sour cherries are my favorite option, but you can use any type of fresh cherries you like as well as frozen or canned. If using frozen, use them straight from the freezer, without thawing, mixing them with some flour and then immediately folding them into the batter. Canned cherries can also be used as long as you make sure to drain them well and dry them with paper towels, or else the juices will seep into the cake and affect its texture and taste.

 

cherry cobbler

 Moving into a new refrigerator, I realized I have a bunch of frozen not super great cherries to eat up. they're fine and I ate a lot fresh when I picked them from a new friend's backyard, but they're not the best ever.  They need some doctoring.  this cherry cobbler to the rescue.  As always, cutting the sugar drastically. 

Ingredients

Fruit

• 4-6 cups pitted cherries, fresh or frozen
• 1/3-1/2 cup sugar
• 2-3 T corn starch (use 3 T if frozen cherries)
• 2 T (fresh) lemon juice
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract 

Cobbler

• 6 T butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3-1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk

Put fruit mixture on stove top and simmer briefly, stirring.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and put butter pats into 9x13 pan.  Put pan in oven as it preheats to melt.

Combine dry cobbler ingredients, then add milk just to mix and spread over butter in pan.  Put fruit mix on top.

Bake about 40 minutes, until browned on top.