Cherry Garcia Cake (Ben & Jerry’s Week!!)
Surprise!!
It’s Ben & Jerry’s Week!!
Shelly and I love teaming up to do theme weeks from time to time, and a few weeks ago, we decided to organize a Ben & Jerry’s Week. We are so in love with their ice cream and creative flavor pairings, and we’ve used their ice cream as inspiration on many desserts in the past.
We invited a few blogger friends to participate, so they will be joining on different days this week. I can’t wait to see all the fun recipes that everyone comes up with!!
For my first recipe, I used Cherry Garcia as my inspiration.
It’s one of my favorites!! And it was hard to resist the idea of making a pretty pink cake.
Trust me when I say you need this cake in your life.
Your hips might not need it (mine don’t), but since when do they get a say?
Shut up, stupid hips.
You’re not the boss of me.
This cake is more or less just an adaptation of my Mint Chocolate Chip Cake. That’s what I love about making cakes — it’s just a matter of changing a few ingredients in the frosting, maybe adding a topping or two, and you have a whole new cake!!
This cake is rich dark chocolatey, with cherry buttercream that is loaded with chunks of chocolate and sweet cherries.
How can you say no to that face?
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened, Dutch process cocoa powder (I used Hershey Special Dark)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- Frosting:
- 3 sticks salted butter, slightly softened
- 10 oz jar maraschino cherries -- juice drained and reserved and cherries chopped and set aside
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into small chunks
- Ganache:
- 2 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped into small chunks
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 TBS light corn syrup (or honey)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 eight or nine inch pans.
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until fully combined. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then slowly stir in the boiling water. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans and bake for 30 -40 minutes, until tops of cakes spring back when you lightly touch in the center.
- Remove cakes from oven. Allow to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then remove to finish cooling on wire racks.
- Prepare Frosting:
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine butter and reserved cherry juice, beating on low until combined. Slowly add powdered sugar, beating on low until just mixed. Increase speed to high and beat for about a minute, until smooth and fluffy. Fold in chocolate and cherries.
- Split each cake round in half with a serrated knife, giving you four layers. Frost and stack layers and place in the refrigerator while you prepare ganache.
- Ganache:
- In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and heavy cream. Microwave for about a minute, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted and smooth. Add corn syrup (or honey) and refrigerate until thick and cooled, but still pourable.
- Pour ganache over chilled cake.
- If desired, top with whipped cream swirls and additional cherries, but wait until ganache is chilled and set on cake before doing so.
Notes
Cake batter portion adapted from Hershey
Now be sure to go and check out the other goods!!
Shelly (cookies and cups) made What a Cluster Bars and Peabody (Culinary Concoctions by Peabody) made Phish Food Pie. I’m 100% certain that I need both, immediately.
Enjoy, and I can’t wait to share my other recipes with you this week!!!
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Yeah, well, lately my hips have been the boss of me…by not letting me fit into some of my favorite jeans.
Stupid.
This cake, though… my hips will have to get over it.
Looks fantastic! Such a happy cake!
I need you to just show up one day with a cake all for me. This looks amazing!
OH-MY-GOD I ALMOST ATE MY COMPUTER’S SCREEN.
Yum! My favorite combination!
This is going to be a fun week ! Fun things always happen when you tell your hips “you are not the boss of me”. Is it normal to be a little giddy with excitement at what this theme is about to bring? As always gorgeous cake and photos.
Kristan, this cake is stunning!! Seriously one of the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. Love the flavor combo.
Happy Mother’s Day to you! I can just tell you are a wonderful mama to those cute kiddos. Hope you day was blessed! :)
That looks fantastic! Can’t wait for the rest of Ben and Jerry’s week!
How kind and sweet of you to write this post.
It’s great to have someone be honnest about things and not make us feel bad because we are not perfect.
Thank you!
6 cups. I missed it in the ingredients list. So sorry!! :)
looks yummy!! how much powdered sugar for the frosting? Did I overlook it?
Holy crap the cake is one to behold! Looks outstanding.
Fabulous looking cake… I’ll definitely stay posted to see what yummy creations you come up with!!!
That’s one dangerous and delicious looking cake! Beautiful too! I’m so excited to see what’s next from you ladies! Great idea!
Okay, that is beautiful!
This cake looks like the whole thing is made of ice cream.
What an awesome bday cake it’d be.
Oh, this is going to be a GOOD WEEK!!!
This cake is the *cutest!*
My favorit B+J flavor in a cake???? Pass me a fork please!
Oh wow, this looks beyond amazing! My hips definitely don’t need it, but I’m not one to let that put me off!
You are an evil genius for creating such a masterpiece. One I want to eat. NOW. Actually I want both the Thin Mint version and this one. Call me greedy. p.s. I’m not an ice cream person but a while back a friend tied me to a chair and force fed me Ben & Jerry’s Espresso Heath Bar Crunch (not sure if that’s the correct name). Best ice cream ever. Hope you do a riff on that flavor!
How much powdered sugar do you use in the frosting? It is not listed under the ingredients. Thank you!
Oops…..just saw it! Never mind!
Just amazing… Think I need this cake in my life! What an amazing week to have … Ben & Jerry’s has the best flavor combinations! Can’t wait to see what you and everyone else ab planned for the ret of the week!
Wow, girl that cake is gorgeous! Love the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream week idea!
What a gorgeous cake – love the pink frosting! And I am in love with B&J week!
Loving this cake!
Oh my gosh! That cake looks amazing. Love Cherry Garcia!
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Cherry Garcia used to be my favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor! Chocolate and cherries are meant to be together.
Best week ever! PS-hips lie!
Holy yum!!!!
Wow, one look at this cake and I was drooling!
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I am not using sticks of butter, so what is the equivalent to soft butter? 1 cup, 2 cups of soft butter???? Please help – I am making this cake for my husband’s birthday. His favorite combination of chocolate and cherries.
Great cake will definitely have to try it
Many thanks from northern Ireland
I’m confused. What is the 3/4 cup of boiling water for?
That cake looked so fabulous that I literally ran out and bought all the missing ingredients. We made the cake on Sunday and it was amazing. It looked as good as your photos and I think I gained 10 pounds but it was totally worth it.
Thank you!! (for the recipe not the weight)
Judy
I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed it!! Nothing better in the world than a great cake :)
the cake was so moist! i used swiss meringue buttercream (and folded in chopped fresh cherries and chocolate) and omitted the ganache. everyone loved it! thanks for the great recipe (:
This looks beautiful and delicious! I’m going to make it for my dad’s 60th birthday this weekend. Question — how firm does the ganache get? We have 60 candles to use and I’m wondering if I should skip the ganache (or pour it over individual slices after we blow out the candles). ??
Do you combine the wet ingredients of the cake first? Or add the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla individually?