Homemade Cherry Devil’s Food Cake

Cherries and chocolate make for one sweet pairing, and look as pretty as they are delicious to eat in this homemade cherry devil’s food cake from scratch. A lot of recipes out there for this particular cake call for a boxed devil’s food cake mix and a can of cherry pie filling. While this probably makes a seriously moist and yummy cake, for those of you wanting to get your hands a little dirty, this homemade version will add to your bragging rights thanks to devil’s food cake from scratch along with some help from a few jars of maraschino cherries.

Chopped cherries are added right into the airy chocolate batter for sweet cherry flavor in every bite. For a pretty presentation you can also add a layer of chopped cherries along with the frosting between the two cake layers as you’re assembling the cake. If you like your chocolate cake light and sweet, rather than dense and rich, you’ll love this homemade devil’s food cake recipe.

We used a simple butter-cream frosting here, but a whipped cream frosting would also look lovely thanks to its fluffy texture. Halved cherries add oomph around the border of the cake once it’s on the plate.

While the punch of red maraschino cherries looks perfect for a garnish, if you find the flavor of these brightly-hued bottled cherries to be overly sweet, you can certainly swap them out for fresh or thawed frozen cherries instead. We think this cake is delicious anytime, but the bright red cherries and snowy white icing make it an especially festive choice during the holiday season, making it the perfect Christmas cake. Click to view and print the recipe for Cherry Devi’s Food Cake.