Serves a Crowd

Chocolate cherry pound cake

by:
June 21, 2010
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 12
Author Notes

This cake reminds me of the chocolate-covered cherries you used to buy your mother (and my girls still buy me, because they know I love them!) for Valentine's Day. It's rich, and it's decadent, and it's wonderful. I don't make it often, because it's such a production, but when I want a show-stopper dessert, this is it. —Kayb

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Ingredients
  • 2 cups halved, pitted fresh cherries
  • 3 1/2 cups sugar, divided
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 8 ounces sour cream
  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, grated, divided
Directions
  1. Combine cherries, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until cherries are softened. Cool and drain, reserving juice.
  2. Cream butter until light. Add sugar and whip until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla, along with 2 tablespoons of juice from cherries, and beat until well combined.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa. Add to butter/egg/sugar mixture in thirds, beating after each addition.
  4. Fold sour cream into batter. Reserve 1/2 cup chocolate, and fold remainder into batter.
  5. Butter and flour a Bundt cake pan. Spoon about 1/2 cup batter into pan, top with cherries, and repeat layers until all batter and cherries are used. Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely.
  6. Melt reserved 1/2 cup chocolate with another 2 tablespoons of cherry juice and pour over completely cooled cake for a glaze.
  7. Serve with a cherry cheesecake ice cream and chocolate syrup, if you really want overkill in the decadence department!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

I'm a business professional who learned to cook early on, and have expanded my tastes and my skills as I've traveled and been exposed to new cuisines and new dishes. I love fresh vegetables, any kind of protein on the grill, and breakfasts that involve fried eggs with runny yolks. My recipes tend toward the simple and the Southern, with bits of Asia or the Mediterranean or Mexico thrown in here and there. And a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a float in the lake, as pictured, is a pretty fine lunch!

7 Reviews

Lauren December 15, 2018
Could this cake be made in 2 loaf pans instead of a bundt pan?
Janeths June 30, 2013
Made this today with cherries from our very productive cherry tree. It was very tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
Kayb June 30, 2013
Glad you enjoyed!
Gale C. August 10, 2011
What size bundt should this cake be baked in? Or do I have to half the recipe to fit in a 6 cup bundt pan?
Gale Please email me at Pearlrose@aol.com
marmalade January 31, 2011
Love this cake! I was all psyched to try this last week, but didn't have the exact ingredients on hand. So, the recipe is a little tweaked but it came out just fine. I also halved the recipe to accomodate my 6 cup bundt pan. I used jarred sour cherries and their juice instead of fresh, Earth Balance Soy Garden buttery spread, and So Delicious Raspberry coconnut milk yogurt instead of sour cream. Baked at 350 for approximately 50 minutes. Made the glaze after the cake cooled. My teenaged son and husband, who are not fans of chocolate cake, absolutely loved this recipe and hope I make it again real soon. I thought it was delicious, too. It was gone in about a day and a half. I don't know where on the site to go to rate this cake, but it gets a huge thumbs up. Thanks for sharing!
Kayb January 31, 2011
So glad you enjoyed it! I haven't made it in forever...I ought to do it soon.
Jaynerly June 25, 2010
Sounds delicious! I will certainly be trying this cake!