Chocolate Cherry Cake | Cherry Buttercream Recipe

There's usually no occasion when I bake anything. And when there is an occasion, I either run out of time or get lazy to bake anything!

Anything with cherries make the dessert fancy. So when I brought this over to my family's regular Sunday dinner at my grandparents' house, everyone kept asking what's the occasion. My cousin was the 3rd person to ask in less than 10 minutes, so I told her that it's for her wedding anniversary. She blushed and said thank you. You know, just keeping up with my joke.

When it was time to serve the cake, I learned that it was my cousin's wedding anniversary!!

I bring desserts in like 1 out of 4 Sundays a month (used to be more frequent before I got an office job) -- just lucky enough to bring it on the right day!

The real reason I made this cake was because my dad bought 3 jars of maraschino cherries, and they were about to expire. Very thoughtful, eh? :)) 

I've been meaning to make a cake for a long time already. I just keep on passing the idea because (1) I get lazy and (2) I don't have time! :( But if you know that an ingredient is about to expire, trust me, you make time for baking. 

And it's a tasty push! I was looking into making a black forest cake, but I don't have whipped cream. Yes, it's me again being completely lazy to go out and buy one. Then I got frustrated. Then I cried while looking at Pinterest photos of black forest cakes, thinking how close I was yet so far. I already made the chocolate cake layer!! But whipped cream. And laziness. :(

Then I used this little head of mine and thought of what can I substitute whipped cream with. I thought about making whipped buttercream, and it felt like that works! 

And since the opportunity was already there, why not make the most out of the 3 jars by making cherry buttercream instead?  

I love how natural this buttercream tastes. I usually use food flavoring to add a fruity taste on my frosting, but the maraschino cherry juice is a good flavoring agent!

Cherry Buttercream

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter (softened)
• 6-7 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla
• 6 tbsp Maraschino Cherry juice (approximate)
• Pinch of Salt

Instructions

1. Using an electric mixer, whisk butter on medium-high until it lightens in color.
2. Mix in vanilla and salt.
3. Add in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix on medium speed. Add a tablespoon of cherry juice in between cups of sugar to soften the frosting.
4. Mix to desired consistency.

Frosts 1 8" cake with 2 layers.

Recipe adapted from Frost and Serve.

I added chopped cherries and mixed it to 1 cup of buttercream that I spread on the middle layer. I actually regret that I thought about this after baking the chocolate layer, but I could have mixed some chopped cherries on the batter before baking it for a more fruity surprise! Maybe you could try it for me and tell me how it goes? :)