Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Cherry and Chocolate


It's time for some sweets around here!

Well, actually, I do have a Chocolate 4-layer cake with PB frosting and a PB ganache coming up. Brace yourselves.

Lately my palate has been dipping into Bavarian culinary dreamland wishing for a dark cherry chocolate torte, popular in that region.

I don't exactly know what I'd do with an entire torte to my own, but a sheet of brownies seems much more manageable. We just need to fill our house up with kids and then I can get away with baking huge cakes for no special occasion.

Anyway.

As I was saying... cherry+chocolate is a fancy of mine. I dream about the combination more than I produce it and this week while browsing Target grocery isles, I found cherry filling, a chocolate devils food cake mix, and refilled my pantry on almond extract and gave it a go.

I adapted this particular recipe from many I saw online and in cookbooks. The glaze, I must admit, is the "cherry on the top" if you will. Don't skimp out on it or you'll be sorry and end up with a cotton mouth.

Oh, and most of the recipes called it a "brownie"; in my head, a brownie denotes fudginess, denseness, and heavy richness. This recipe is a CAKE, not a BROWNIE, got it?

And, I really think this would make a delightful dessert for company after a big Sunday meal, served with vanilla bean ice cream and served warm out of the oven.


Cherry Chocolate (Brownie)CAKE

1 box Devils Food cake mix
2-3 eggs (3 if their small, 2 if large)
1 tsp almond extract
1 21-oz can cherry pie filling

1 cup sugar
5 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips*
1/2 tsp almond extract

Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, cherry filling, and almond extract.
Pour into greased pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes until just done.

While bake is cooling, combine sugar, butter, and milk in top of a double broiler, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved and butter melted. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stirring well until melted. Add extract and pour over cooled cake.

*I used about 4-5 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips and then threw in a 2-0z sqaure of bittersweet bakers chocolate (orange box). Because of the bittersweet chocolate addition, I increased my sugar by a couple of Tbsp-- you can use any kind of chocolate you have on hand (baking chocolate, that is), just be sure to nail down the sugar ratio.

2 comments:

katherine said...

katie. THANKS for commenting on my blog. i used to lurk into yours, but now i can't! but it is fun to drool over these recipes you have posted here! oh my. we just started doing ww, so maybe after we reach our goals, we will have to try this recipe!! but, please say hello whenever! and i love living next to Molly. she is a treat. seriously. love her!! oh yes, and ps, congrats on the upcoming baby boy!! that is very exciting news!! k, take care!!

Emily said...

Um hello . . . lets share their missy! It is so late/eraly in the morning and now I am craving this! Looks drool good!