This Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake is a light, moist chocolate cake topped with a chocolate almond frosting. 

I am so excited to finally share my Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake recipe with you! I haven't been this excited about a recipe in a long time. This cake is so light, moist and chocolatey.

Sweet cherries are now in season here in Michigan and I just can't get enough. There is nothing quite like a Michigan cherry. We live just a couple miles away from the cherry orchards. Last weekend we went and picked ourselves a bucket full of cherries. I have been testing a few different cherry recipes to share with you and if I had to pick a favorite it would be this cake. The combination of sweet cherries and chocolate is just so good!

My secret for creating a light and airy chocolate cake is beer. The beer acts as a leavening agent which helps to create a fluffy and moist cake. Since this is a cherry chocolate cake, I used a cherry wheat beer. I had great results with using the Traverse City Cherry Wheat Beer from Atwater Brewery. The cherry notes of the beer enhance the sweet cherry flavor of the cake.  If you can't find this beer, you can use your favorite beer to bake with for the recipe, but I had great results with it. There are some other cherry wheat beers on the market, but I haven't tried those.

This Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake is topped with a chocolate and almond butter frosting. The frosting isn't too heavy and doesn't overpower the cherry flavor of the cake. If you aren't a frosting person or if you just don't feel like making a frosting, this cake tastes great without any frosting.

This Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake is:
Light and fluffy
Perfect for summer
Great for picnics & potlucks
Easy to make &
Can be made a day in advance!

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Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake

Yield: 8 Servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

This chocolate cake is light, moist and airy. The perfect summertime cake. The secret to creating a light cake is beer! I used a cherry wheat beer to add even more cherry flavor to the cake. After the cake has cooled it's topped with an almond butter and chocolate frosting.

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Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 1 ½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup Sugar
• ⅓ Cup Coco Powder
• ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Cold Beer {I used a cherry wheat beer}
• ½ Cup Vegetable Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 Cups Dark Sweet Cherries, pitted and halved

For the Frosting:

• 2 ounces Dark Chocolate, chopped
• ¼ Cup Almond Butter
• 2-4 Tablespoons Water
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease an 8 inch round cake pan. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, coco powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until everything is throughly mixed together.
3. In another mixing bowl, pour the beer, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir until evenly mixed.
5. Gently fold in the cherries.
6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool completely.

For the frosting:

1. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler over medium heat or in the microwave on 30 second intervals.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together the almond butter, 2 tablespoons of water and vanilla. Beat in the powdered sugar. Mix until fully incorporated. Add in the melted chocolate and mix. Add any additional water if needed. I like to start with a lit bit of water and add more if needed.
3. If the icing is too liquidly, add in a little of powdered sugar at a time.
4. Spread onto the cooled cake.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

If it's warm out, I like to refrigerate the cake after it's frosted. This helps to keep the frosting from melted.

Did you make this recipe?

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XO Jeni