Reviewed: Mar. 23, 2012

Quick, incredibly moist, and reliably good. My base was a Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix. I modified with 1T cocoa, 3 eggs, 1/3 C oil, 1t. almond extract, and flour to adjust for high altitude ( I am at >5000 ft). No water added - pie filling takes care of it. BTW, I frosted useing about 1/3 can of Duncan Hines Dark Choc. frosting. Bundt pan at 350 for 35 min. using convection. LOVE this cake. I made 2 in one week and have requests for recipe.

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Reviewer:

Leigh

Reviewed: Jan. 1, 2012

Very good! topped with Hershey's chocolate buttercream.

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Reviewer:

littledoni

Reviewed: Jul. 30, 2011

made this as written, except used sugar free canned frosting for ease and no sugar added cherry filling. Topped each peice with a little frosting, whipped cream, cherries and slivered almonds. Was very rich and moist, without being too sweet. Hubby like this for his b day!

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BecciB

Reviewed: May 15, 2011

I went the shortcut way, with the box mix of Chocolate Fudge cake. I also added a shot of cherry rum as suggest by someone else. It was a good chocolate cake with cherries... it just wasn't phenomenal. I used the chocolate ganache recipe on this website to top it, and that worked out great.

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ALK02G

Reviewed: Mar. 31, 2011

Wonderfully rich, and easy to prepare! I've made this twice now, and have always received compliments. This is the closest recipe I have found to compare to the taste of Betty Crocker's chocolate-cherry cake mix, from back in the early sixties. Sorry Betty, but I think I like this recipe even better---:-) One comment I will make is that the cake took closer to 40 minutes to bake in my oven. I did frost it with the chocolate buttercream frosting recipe I have, and this makes the dessert doubly rich! Thanks, Ginger, for a great recipe!

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GracieBonica

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Reviewed: Mar. 11, 2011

This is a great cake. I have made the cake mix version of this cake several times over the years, but tired of it. I decided to try this, as I can control the amount of sugar in it, and wow, it is noticeably better! I used no-added sugar pie filling, reduced the sugar in the cake to 1C. Rather than using butter cream icing, I used a thick chocolate glaze made from bittersweet chocolate chips - it was delicious, and keeps well, just as the author says. I highly recommend this cake with a glaze!

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Reviewer:

elsa

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Living In: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Reviewed: Feb. 21, 2011

If you like moist cakes, this is a good one to try. I used unsweetened pie filling and the cake was still sweet enough. I think next time I'd maybe add more almond flavoring. I didn't have cherry flavoring to add, but that might be good too. Definitely worth making again.

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MLM-Miami

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Seattle, Washington, USA

Living In: Miami, Florida, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 27, 2011

I was expecting this to be very tasty recipe based on the other reviews. I'm rating it with one star in an attemt to counter all the five star ratings. It was just OK. Nothing special. Sure it was moist, but all cake should be moist. I was expecting either the chocolate flavor to stand out or the cherry...neither did. I even used 1/2 dark cocoa 1/2 regular to make it more chocolately, but this recipe seems lacking. Maybe adding liquer like another reviewer mentioned. I was expecting a "lava cake" consistency with a rich chocolate taste. This didn't come close.

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seidler

Reviewed: Oct. 24, 2010

Made this for my son's fourth birthday as a volcano cake. I subbed vanilla for the almond extract (because I had almond in the frosting and didn't want it to overpower) and used at least half dark cocoa powder for a richer chocolate taste. It was very moist and fluffy, especially for a scratch cake! I was very pleased and so was the birthday boy!

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Reviewer:

Godsweetsong

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Living In: Moorhead, Minnesota, USA

Reviewed: Sep. 2, 2010

I've made this cake once- and it was, to say the least, absolutely amazing. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE loved it. I had to bake it for a little bit longer then called for, but other then that, if you follow the directions exactly, you will have- in the end- and amazing and loved cake. I made a double batch which, in the end, made three layers. The cake was amazing.

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