There are so many things to love about this cake that it’s hard to know where to start. If you love chocolate & cherries & espresso and you believe fudgy, rich desserts are the best desserts then THIS recipe is what your dessert dreams are made of…
There’s a secret ingredient that takes this cake over the top…
I’ve been making this cake for about 20 years and it’s my daughter, Hannah’s, favorite dessert. I know whenever I make it that I can count on her to take half of it home which is really helpful because this is one of those things that I just keep slicing little sections off of each time I go through the kitchen. And I’ll find 10 reasons to walk through the kitchen on any given day if this is sitting on the counter. Because eating just a sliver (even if it’s 10 times in one day) somehow doesn’t count the way sitting down and eating a whole piece on an actual plate with an actual fork does.
Is it just me or do you do the same rationalization?
Anyway, I digress. I need to tell you about the secret ingredient that puts the fudginess-factor of this cake over the top. It’s mascarpone cheese. Mascarpone is Italian cream cheese and it’s softer and creamier than regular cream cheese with a more mellow flavor. I have substituted regular cream cheese in the early days of making this because I couldn’t always find mascarpone where I lived, and it’s still an awesome cake with regular cream cheese, but I can tell the difference and you’ll be able to, also.
Find mascarpone. You’ll be happy you did!
What you need to make chocolate cherry bundt cake
For the cake:
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not dutch process *see notes)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 cups sugar
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
- 1 Tbsp real vanilla
- 2 eggs, room temp
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 can cherry pie filling (or make your own *recipe in notes)
For the glaze:
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1 tsp real vanilla
- 1 cup chocolate chips
How to make the batter
The batter is really very simple and you don’t even need a mixer. You’ll melt the butter in a saucepan, whisk in cocoa and water, remove it from the heat (I place it on a dish towel on my counter) and mix the rest of your batter right in the same pan. Just make sure your eggs and mascarpone are at room temperature so they incorporate smoothly.
1. melt butter and whisk in water & cocoa 
2. whisk in sugar, mascarpone, vanilla & eggs until smooth. Then fold in flour, baking soda & salt 
3. After you add the flour whisk again until smooth
…and then…
Do you cringe when you unmold a bundt cake?
I don’t know about you but I never feel completely confident that my cake is going to release easily from a bundt pan. It seems like even when I grease and flour it really well, loosen the sides and wait the recommended amount of time before flipping it I always have that moment where I’m cringing and waiting to see if a big chunk of my cake is stuck on the top. Do you do this, too???
Well, first I want to say this is where being kind to yourself comes in. Life happens and you might find yourself patching your cake. It’s not the end of the world -especially for THIS cake because it’s so moist and fudgy that if you have to press some of it back into place it will actually remold into itself pretty easily. And then you’re going to cover it in glaze anyway, so no one but you is going to know.
Now that we’ve set realistic expectations I have a few tips that will lessen the chance of your cake sticking
I found these tips on King Arthur Flour’s website and they’re great!
- Don’t use butter to grease your pan. Butter has milk solids that act like glue. Use oil or shortening. I don’t use shortening/vegetable oil in my kitchen so I used a pan spray made with avocado oil.
- Wait until just before you’re ready to pour the batter in the pan to grease it. If you do it ahead of time the oil tends to slide down and pool on the bottom. I used a pastry brush to make sure the entire pan was coated evenly.
- Instead of regular flour use nut flour or granulated sugar to coat your pan. Regular flour can leave an ugly layer on the outside of your cake (been there, done that) but nut flours and sugar will not. I used sugar and it worked great! Next time I’ll use a little more because I had a tiny bit stick on one side but I definitely saw a difference between the sugar and flour.
- Let your cake rest for 20 minutes on a rack before attempting to flip it out.
- Read the entire article here for more tips!
brush pan spray evenly 
sprinkle with sugar 
smooth & bake
Prep your pan correctly and your cake will unmold much more easily. However, no matter how well you prepare sometimes your cake is still going to stick. It happens. And if it does, just carefully get the broken piece out of the pan and mold it back into place. I lost a little bit on the upper right of my cake and you couldn’t tell once it was glazed 🙂
cool upside down 20 minutes 
unmold on wire rack to finish cooling
Ok, and this glaze? Chocolate and espresso, yes please…
Eric and I splurged on an espresso maker right before COVID hit and honestly this machine is one of the best purchases ever. I’m kind of a process person to begin with so something about the grinding of the beans, the tamping down of the grounds, the whoosh and hum of pulling a shot and watching the layers form in the espresso glass just makes my heart happy. I made this cake long before I could make my own espresso, though, so you can use strong coffee instead, no problem!
How do you make the glaze?
Making the glaze couldn’t be easier! Place your chocolate chips in a bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan bring your cream, espresso and corn syrup just to a boil. Remove it from the heat, stir in vanilla and pour it over the chocolate. Give the whole thing a stir, wait 1 minute and then whisk until it comes together into a silky smooth pourable glaze.
Place your cooled cake, still on the wire rack, over a large plate to catch the glaze that will drip off the edges. Carefully spoon your glaze over the top of the cake letting it drip down the sides. Once it’s done dripping, swap out the first plate with a new plate and spoon the glaze that’s on your first plate back over the cake again.
Let the glaze set and lift your cake onto a cake plate. I had some Luxardo cherries calling my name so I garnished each slice with one after cutting but that’s not necessary.
How decadent does this look? And I promise it tastes even better!
Decadent & Fudgy Chocolate-Cherry Bundt Cake
Super moist chocolate cake studded with cherries and covered in a rich chocolate espresso glaze...this is what dessert dreams are made of
Ingredients
For Cake
- 2 sticks butter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa* (see notes)
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 cups sugar
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature*(see notes)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 can cherry pie filling *(see notes to make your own)
- 1-2 Tbsp sugar for coating pan
For Glaze
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- For the cake: Melt butter over low heat and stir in cocoa until smooth
- Whisk in water and remove from heat.
- To the warm cocoa mixture add sugar, mascarpone, vanilla and eggs. Whisk until smooth.
- In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients all at once to wet ingredients, stirring with a spatula until incorporated. Once incorporated use whisk to mix just until smooth.
- Stir in cherry pie filling
- Grease 10" bundt pan with cooking spray and use a pastry brush to make sure all areas are covered. Sprinkle pan with sugar, turning and patting until all surfaces are covered. Do this just before pouring batter into pan.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth evenly.
- Bake in center of preheated oven 1 hour, or until firm to the touch and edges are just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Cool in pan on wire rack 20 minutes
- Loosen cake carefully with a knife and invert onto wire rack to cool completely
- Make the glaze: Place chocolate chips in bowl and set aside.
- In small saucepan combine cream, corn syrup, and espresso and heat just until boiling. Take off of heat, stir in vanilla and pour over chocolate chips. Stir and let sit 1 minute. Whisk until it comes together in a smooth pourable glaze.
- With cake still on wire rack place a plate underneath (large enough to catch drips) and spoon glaze over cake letting it drip down sides and onto plate. Once all of the glaze has been used, replace first plate with another plate and start spooning glaze from the first plate back over the cake.
- Let stand until glaze is set and carefully transfer from rack onto serving plate. Garnish with Luxardo cherries, if desired.
Notes
- Use regular unsweetened cocoa (like Hershey's), not Dutch process cocoa. They are two different things and react differently in recipes. When a recipe doesn't specify which to use, a good rule of thumb is that if baking SODA is called for use regular unsweetened cocoa and if baking POWDER is called for use dutch process cocoa.
- You can substitute regular cream cheese for the mascarpone but the mascarpone is best. If using regular cream cheese make sure it's softened and beat it with 1 Tbsp heavy cream to loosen it before adding to batter.
- You can make your own cherry pie filling by combining 16 oz frozen sweet cherries with 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water in a saucepan and stirring constantly over low heat until liquid bubbles, thickens and is no longer foggy. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 tsp almond extract. Let cool completely before using in batter.
If you make this cake let me know, take a pic and tag me on instagram at #breathingandcooking. I hope you love this cake as much as we do!
Enjoy!
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