This delicious Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake is the perfect celebration cake- it is moist, decadent, and so pretty when sliced!
We absolutely love pound cakes and have made so many variations over the years.
In addition to today's cherry chocolate chip pound cake, you can find another great cherry pound cake (with coconut frosting) in our recipe section, as well as a cherry chocolate chip layer cake!
What Does Adding Sour Cream to Cake Do?
Today's cherry pound cake recipe is different than our previous one because it contains sour cream.
The sour cream not only adds richness of flavor, but it also thickens the batter, making it perfect for keeping our mini chocolate chips and sliced maraschino cherries suspended!
Sour cream also adds a bit of acidity to the batter which is always good because it softens the strands of gluten, creating a more tender crumb.
Our Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake recipe is another example of a super moist pound cake that contains sour cream.
How to Make Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake
This Cherry Chocolate Chip pound cake is very easy to make.
The most time consuming part is slicing the maraschino cherries- but it is so worth it for the bits of color and cherry flavor in every slice!
You can find the full, printable recipe card further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Preheat and Prepare Pan: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan. (See notes)
- Maraschino Cherries: Separate maraschino cherries from the juice-- keep the juice for later. I used a sifter over a measuring cup for this step.
- Sliced Cherries: I reserved 7 cherries to be used as decoration for the top of the cake. Then sliced up the rest very finely-- approximately ½ cup. I lightly blotted with a paper towel.
- Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Butter and Sugar: Cream the butter on medium speed in your mixing bowl until smooth. (Use paddle attachment if using a stand mixer).
- Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
- Eggs: Add the eggs one at a time blending after each to incorporate.
- Sour Cream Mixture: In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the 1 cup sour cream, ⅓ cup of the drained juice from the jar of cherries, and 1 ½ teaspoons cherry extract.
- Dry and Wet Ingredients: While mixing on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream mixture to the butter, sugar, & egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (I added the flour mixture three times and the sour cream mixture twice). Mix just until blended.
- I added a touch of pink coloring but this is optional.
- Cherries and Mini Chocolate Chips: Fold in the finely chopped cherries and mini chocolate chips. Add batter to prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes. Check on the cake as it nears the 1 hour mark and adjust additional time as needed. When an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, it is ready.
We like to cool on a cooling rack (still in pan) for 10 minutes before turning out.
Cherry Glaze
We decided to create a quick and easy cherry glaze for our pound cake. This is optional, but we really like the boost of cherry flavor that it adds.
A chocolate ganache glaze (as we used with our Chocolate Marble Pound Cake) with a bit of cherry extract stirred into it would be a nice option too!
The cherry glaze is a simple combination of powdered sugar, a bit of milk, and cherry extract, and a pinch of salt. I also added a touch of pink coloring gel.
If you find that your glaze is too thick, add a bit more milk-- if it is too thin, add a bit more confectioners sugar.
Decorating the Pound Cake
The cherry glaze can be spooned over the pound cake if you'd like, but for today's cake, I added it to a disposable piping bag and snipped the tip away. This gives a bit more control.
We topped the glaze with maraschino cherries and mini chocolate chips!
Can This Pound Cake be Frozen?
Yes! We freeze our cakes all the time and have never had an issue.
If you are baking in advance, wrap the freshly baked cake in plastic wrap, then foil. We usually do this step when the cake has cooled but is still slightly warm.
Cakes layers or pound cakes and bundt cakes that have been tightly wrapped will stay fresh in the freezer for up to three months.
To Defrost the Cake
- Pound cakes and bundt cakes take longer to thaw than cake layers. For this reason, I like to move the cake from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before.
- The next morning, place on the counter (still wrapped) and allow to warm to room temperature. Allow at a few hours hours for it to come to room temperature and soften.
More Cherry Cakes
We hope that you enjoy this Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake! If you are a fan of cherry desserts, don't miss these other delicious cherry cakes from our recipes section!
Cherry Chocolate Chip Layer Cake
Enjoy the Recipe!
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you give this Cherry Chocolate Chip Cake a try, we'd love for you to leave a comment and photo below.
For more cake recipes and free cake decorating videos, don't miss our Cakes Recipes and Tutorials Section!
Cherry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
This moist Cherry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake is moist, decadent, and has amazing flavor!
Ingredients
- 3 sticks (339 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups (600 g) sugar
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) * All Purpose Flour* (not self-rising)
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 1 (10 oz) Jar Maraschino Cherries - Approximately ½ cup finely chopped cherries. Reserve juice.
- ⅓ cup maraschino cherry juice (reserved from the jar of maraschino cherries) *See Notes
- 1 ½ teaspoons (6g) Cherry Extract (We used Watkins brand)
- ½ cup Mini Chocolate Chips, plus extra for sprinkling on top (adjust amount to your liking)
- Pink of coloring gel for batter- optional- we used very little.
Glaze
- 2 cups Confectioners Sugar (see notes)
- ¼ cup (60g) milk
- Pinch of salt (Approximately ¼ teaspoon)
- Cherry Extract- start with 1 teaspoon and add additional until you reach desired amount of cherry flavor.
- A touch of pink coloring gel- optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan.
- Separate maraschino cherries from the juice-- reserve the juice for later.
- I reserved 7 cherries to be used as decoration for the top of the cake. Then sliced up the rest very finely-- approximately ½ cup. I lightly blotted with a paper towel.
- In a separate bowl whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Cream the butter on medium speed in your mixing bowl until smooth. (Use paddle attachment if using a stand mixer). Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time blending after each to incorporate.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the 1 cup sour cream, ⅓ cup of the drained juice from the jar of cherries, and 2 teaspoons cherry extract.
- While mixing on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream mixture to the butter, sugar, & egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (I add the flour mixture three times and the sour cream mixture twice). Mix just until blended.
- Fold in the finely chopped cherries and mini chocolate chips. Add batter to prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes. Check on the cake as it nears the 1 hour mark and adjust additional time as needed. When an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, it is ready.
- Cool on a cooling rack (still in pan) for 10 minutes before turning out.
- This recipe makes approximately 8-8.5 cups of batter.
For the Glaze:
- Combine confectioners sugar, milk, cherry extract, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and stir until smooth.
- Drizzle over the pound cake. (I spooned mine into a piping bag with the tip snipped away for more control.) If the glaze is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a bit more juice or a touch of milk.
Finishing Touches
We sprinkled mini chocolate chips and added 7 maraschino cherries around the top of the cake for decoration.
Notes
Bundt Pan:
We used a bundt pan measuring 10 inches across (The Original Bundt Pan). If you are using a smaller size bundt pan, make sure not to fill the batter more than ¾ full so that it won't overflow when baking.
Glaze:
Adjust to desired consistency- for a thicker glaze, add more confectioners sugar. For a thinner glaze, add a bit more milk.
Maraschino Cherries
I bought maraschino cherries with stems because I liked the look of the stemmed cherries as decoration on top. Of course, you'll remove the stems from the other cherries before finely slicing and adding to the cake batter. I only used about ½ cup of cherries but the batter is thick enough that you could add a bit more if you'd like! The same goes for the mini chocolate chips.
Refrigeration
With the exception of the maraschino cherries on top, this cake can be kept under a cake dome at room temperature. If you do decide to refrigerate, you will want to remove it from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving.
Very pretty inside and out :-) Looks delicious too! Love it.
I love this pound cake.
This cake is a winner!! The flavor is wonderful. I couldn't find cherry extract so I used almond instead. I will still search for cherry extract to use the next time I make this cake. I was also wondering if this cake can be made in a 9x13 pan or into cupcakes?