Black Chocolate Cherry Cake

Today I’m sharing my black chocolate cherry cake recipe with you. Normally for my birthday I hire Happiness101 Bakery (they are awesome and catered my gothic wedding) to make me a custom cake. This year, because I’m on target to meet my fitness goals and didn’t want to be overloaded on sugar, I decided to make the healthiest, tastiest birthday cake I could possibly do on my own.

Important Note About Protein Powder

Not all protein powder is created equal! I’ve tried some pretty awful protein powders to find the hidden gem of Ryse Chocolate Cookie Blast. The protein powder you use will have an impact on flavor. Some are absolutely disgusting when used for baking even if they’re passable for protein shakes.

I’m using my favorite protein powder, the Ryse Chocolate Cookie Blast, as the base for the cake. The cake has a sugar free Black Cherry Jello poke layer, as Jello poke is one of Dave’s favorite things in a cake and he’s converted me to enjoying it. For the icing, I used sugar free Chocolate pudding. I normally prefer cream cheese icing.

Equipment I Used

Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (the wisk attachment is insanely helpful for icing)
my rainbow measuring cups and spoons with all the hard to find sizes
silicone oven mitts (mine are black & turquoise)
set of 2 9″ round silicone baking pans with stainless steel frame

Chocolate Icing Ingredients

5 boxes of sugar free Chocolate Fudge Jello Pudding
2 1/3 cups of cashew milk (or almond, coconut, or your favorite milk)
1 can of Thai Kitchen unsweetened coconut cream (13.66 fl oz / 403 ml)(or use heavy cream if you prefer)

It’s very important to know that the milk you choose will have a big impact on flavor. When testing out this icing for the first time I used a toasted coconut milk, which made it taste like toasted coconut milk chocolate. It was yummy!

Also, I had extra icing, which I put into a bowl to eat later. I’d rather have a little bit of leftover icing than not enough!

Optional Topping Ingredients

Coconut Non-Dairy Reddi Whip
Tillen Farms Merry Marashino Cherries

Marashino cherries are not all the same. I prefer the taste of Tillen Farms Merry Marashino Cherries and they are gluten free, vegan, and kosher.

Black Chocolate Cherry Cake Ingredients

3 cups finely ground almond flour
4 cups Ryse Chocolate Cookie Blast protein powder
1/2 cup Stevia In The Raw (adjust to taste)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/8 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup avocado oil
2 tablespoons almond extract
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups diced frozen cherries
8 large egg whites from Egg Beaters
3/4 cup plain unsweetened Organic Greek yogurt
9 tablespoons chia seeds
1 box of sugar free Black Cherry Jello

How to Make the Cake

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 9″ round silicone baking pans with oil and set aside.
In a medium bowl, put 9 tablespoons of chia seeds and 27 tablespoons of water and stir. Set aside and let it gel.
In a stand mixer, put the almond flour, protein powder, Stevia in the Raw, baking soda, and salt. Combine thoroughly.
In a medium bowl, put unsweetened applesauce, unsweetened plain greek yogurt, egg whites, avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Combine thoroughly.
Add the medium bowl with applesauce, yogurt, egg whites, avocado oil, vinegar, and extracts to the stand mixer and mix thoroughly.
After the chia seeds have gelled together, add to the stand mixer and mix thoroughly.
Fold in diced cherrries.
Divide the batter evenly between the two 9″ round cake pans.
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I baked for 29 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup hot water with 1 box Black Cherry Jello. Mix thoroughly for 2 minutes. Then add 1 cup cold water and mix.
Using a fork, poke holes throughout both of the cakes.
Pour Black Cherry Jello mixture onto both of the cakes.
Put the cakes into the refridgerator to chill for at least four hours.
In the stand mixer, put can of coconut cream and cashew milk. Add in the pudding mixes. Blend on high with whisk attachment until smooth.
Put pudding into the refridgerator to chill for at least four hours.
After the pudding and cake have solidified and chilled, pull them out and ice the cake.
Store refridgerated.

This makes 2 round 9″ cakes.

Birthday Photos

It made me so happy that my friends loved the cake! They also enjoyed the guacamole and queso I made. It was my first time making queso from scratch in the instant pot but it was so easy! My party theme was simple this year, just dress spooky cute. I wore my favorite Kuromi apron dress as a skirt.

Lakisha loves Kuromi as much as I do!

Dave is wearing a pink Psycho Bunny shirt. I’m in BlackMilk Kuromi apron dress, Demi Loon Vampira Lace Bat top, sparkly lavender headband, and a beautiful necklace that Melissa gifted me.

Final Thoughts

Above is my 45th birthday selfie. Everyone deserves a cute birthday selfie!

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life and my black chocolate cherry cake recipe! Please let me know if you give it a try.

On a very personal note, I will be having surgery at the end of July and it will be a long recovery. Find me on Instagram while I’m healing, as I will be unable to use a computer for a while.

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