Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake with Meringue Buttercream
A decadent and rich chocolate cake with layers of rum-soaked fresh cherries, topped off with an airy meringue buttercream! This amazing chocolate cherry cake is perfect for an elegant dinner or celebration! Top it with a drizzle of chocolate and more cherries and enjoy!
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Ingredients for this Cake
I love all the incredible flavors of this cake recipe! It starts with a rich chocolate cake made with butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour and cocoa powder. For the filling, I soak fresh, pitted cherries in dark rum. The frosting is made with egg whites cooked with a hot sugar syrup, then combined with butter.
How to Make a Chocolate Cherry Cake
Here’s how to make this cake recipe:
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Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour two, 8-inch cake pans; set aside. Place the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla into mixer bowl and whisk until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with milk, just enough to combine.
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Divide the chocolate cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until done; check the center with a toothpick for doneness. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. When cakes are completely cooled, use a long knife to cut layers in half.
- Meanwhile, prepare the cherry filling. Pit the cherries and place them into a bowl. Pour the rum over the cherries and let them sit until you’re ready to assemble the cake.
- Prepare a batch of my Italian meringue buttercream next.
- To assemble cake, first soak the chocolate cake layers with reserved rum and cherry juice, then top with frosting and cherries. Frost the outside of cake and garnish with chocolate and/or cherries.
Easy Meringue Buttercream
You’ll love this creamy and fluffy Italian meringue buttercream! If you want an in-depth tutorial, make sure to check out my ‘Italian Meringue Frosting’ recipe!
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To prepare frosting: Place egg whites into mixer bowl. Place sugar and water into a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until syrup reaches 240F. When syrup is almost ready, begin whisking egg whites until soft peaks form. Pour sugar syrup in a thin stream into the egg whites, whisking on high speed. Continue whisking until meringue forms stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.
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Begin adding butter in small portions and continue whisking. Frosting will separate, continue whisking until uniform and fluffy.
More Recipes!
Enjoyed this chocolate cake recipe? Check out some of my other recipes you’re sure to enjoy!
- Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake – fluffy chocolate mousse between layers of chocolate cake, filled with fresh cherries!
- Honey Cherry Cake – super easy and delicious honey cake dotted with cherries and served with kirsch whipped cream!
- Black Forest Cake – another fantastic cherry cake with cream cheese frosting!
Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake Recipe with Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients
For Chocolate Cake Layers:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For Cherry Filling:
- 4 to 6 cups fresh pitted cherries
- 1 cup golden rum
For Italian Meringue Frosting:
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 5 large egg whites
- 2 cups butter, softened at room temperature
Instructions
- Roughly chop pitted cherries and place into a large bowl. Pour rum over the cherries, cover and set aside. Let the fruit soak for 1 hour or overnight. Drain rum and cherry juice and pour into dispenser bottle
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour 2, 8-inch cake pans; set aside. Place butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla into mixer bowl and whisk until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with milk, just enough to combine.
- Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until done; check center with a toothpick. Remove from oven and turn cakes over onto cooling racks. When cakes are completely cooled, use a long knife to cut layers in half.
- To prepare frosting: Place egg whites into mixer bowl. Place sugar and water into a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until syrup reaches 240F. When syrup is almost ready, begin whisking egg whites until soft peaks form. Pour sugar syrup in a thin stream into the egg whites, whisking on high speed. Continue whisking until meringue forms stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.
- Begin adding butter in small portions and continue whisking. Frosting will separate, continue whisking until uniform and fluffy.
- To assemble cake, first soak chocolate cake layers with reserved rum and cherry juice, then top with frosting and cherries. Frost outside of cake and garnish with chocolate and/or cherries.
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Will the golden rum be very taste full in this cake recipe? I want to make it for my family’s thanksgiving dinner & don’t want it to taste like their’s alcohol or maybe I can substitute it with something else.
Sorry, missed your comment! Hope the cake turned out great for you!
This cake is just so perfect! Its like a modern twist on the drunken cherry cake (that happens to be my husbands favorite) I make it all the time for him and honestly get sick of baking it so much because he asks for it all the time. I love baking and try to change up the game of the same cake over and over again, but noting else seems to make him as happy and the drunken cherry cake! so when I found this cake on your blog, I had to try it and BAM my husband is now in love with two cakes ha ha Thank the heavens and Thank you! 😉
Oh, that’s wonderful! 🙂 I’m happy you found this recipe! My husband doesn’t like sweets at all so I have to eat most of my desserts by myself and share the rest! Enjoy!! 🙂
Does this cake taste like its soaked with the rum? I don’t like when cakes are soggy with too much rum so just want to know if I should adjust the amount. Also is the frosting light and sweet? Or should I adjust the sugar in that as well. Lol I want to make this in a month for a birthday! Thanks so much
You can try adjusting the amount of rum/liquid you want; it’s up to you! The frosting is pretty light; just make sure to whisk it on high speed so it’s airy. I do recommend keeping the sugar amount the same. Good luck! 🙂
Hey tatyana! Merry Christmas to you and yours, I want to make this cake but no fresh cherries, only canned from trader joes. Would that work ok?
Hi! 🙂 Merry Christmas to you, too! Yes, you could use canned cherries for this recipe!
Hello! I’m planning to make this cake as 9”. Can you send me the correct proportions for the cake batter and cream? Thank you!
Hi! If you’re using 9-inch pans, you won’t need to change the recipe. The layers will be slightly thinner though. If you wanted to have the same height on the layers, I recommend preparing 1.5x the recipe.
Can I use the frosting you used in the
PISTACHIO POMEGRANATE CAKE instead?
What kind of texture and taste does the Maringue butter have and why did you choose this one for this cake? Can I add some cherry liquor serup to the cream?
Also, I’ve never made a cake with this type of cake layers. Can a sponge cake be used for this recipe?
Hi! Yes, you can definitely use the whipped cream frosting I used for the pomegranate cake 🙂 That frosting is actually my favorite! Add a few tablespoons of cherry liqueur for more flavor!
You can use a sponge cake, just make sure to soak it with a syrup, even cherry liqueur, so that the cake isn’t too dry. These cake layers are more moist and flavorful