A couple of co-workers had birthdays this week, and so I decided to try a recipe I cut out from my mom’s Better Homes & Garden magazine this summer. The photo of the cake was so inspiring that I just had to make this one. I found the photo and recipe online, and you can see it here. The article in the BH&G magazine gives Melanie Barnard credit for the recipe and Andy Lyons credit for the photo of the cake.
Now I didn’t follow much of the recipe at all. I was really rushed for time because I was already making and baking bread, and we were also making dinner which took quite some time. Between making bread, dinner, and this dessert, we were in the kitchen cooking and cleaning on and off from about midnight to 4 a.m.
So to save time, I used a box chocolate cake mix that I keep on hand to use just in case I need to whip up something quick for someone and don’t have time/ingredients to make something from scratch. I also decided that I didn’t want to make the filling the recipe called for, so I made a scrumptious cream filling from a recipe my friend, Vesna, gave me. She uses this filling when making Russian Hat Cakes, and I when I made it last week, I knew I would end up using this cream filling for other cakes. 
The other thing I did differently was I didn’t make a large cake but rather several miniature cakes. I also made fewer layers because I didn’t have a container tall enough to put them in and transport them to work.
So even though I didn’t follow the Better Homes & Garden recipe, my little cakes were certainly inspired by and and based on their recipe and photo. Before I give you the recipe on my version of BH&G’s chocolate-cherry stack cakes, let me show you a picture of my little cakes when I finally finished them.
One thing that I’m disappointed about is that the cherries I dipped in chocolate didn’t have stems. They would have been so much prettier if they did. I also wish I hadn’t dipped the entire cherry in the chocolate because I think they look prettier with some of the cherry on the top showing. Oh well…live and learn. Next I make this I’ll do a better job with my cherries.
Miniature Chocolate-Cherry Stack Cakes (Adapted from and inspired by this recipe which is posted on Better Homes and Gardens’ website. The magazine credits Melanie Barnard with the recipe.) I highly encourage you to try making their cake, but if you don’t have time to make a cake from scratch, you might try my version.
Ingredients for the cake:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- whatever ingredients your box mix requires
- Optional: maraschino cherry juice and/or diced maraschino cherries
Ingredients for the cherry cream filling/topping:
- 2 cups milk
- 1 pkg. vanilla sugar (You can substitute 1 tbsp. vanilla and 1 tbsp of sugar if you don’t have vanilla sugar on hand)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks butter (unsalted is preferred but I used salted and it turned out fine)
- 7 tbsp. all-purpose flour
- maraschino cherry juice from a jar of maraschino cherries (save the cherries because you’ll be dipping them in chocolate)
- Optional: pink sugar sprinkles to garnish the top of the cream filling
Ingredients for making the chocolate-covered maraschino cherries:
- 1 jar maraschino cherries, drained (juice will be used for the cherry cream filling/topping)
- chocolate bark (you can substitute 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 tbsp. oil if you don’t have chocolate bark)
Step One: Make the cherry cream filling/topping:
- Put your two sticks of butter on the counter top to soften up.
- Take 1/2 cup milk and 7 tbsp. flour and whip it by hand with a whisk until there are no lumps.
- Put 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 cup of sugar, cherry juice, and vanilla sugar in a sauce pan and heat it on med. well heat until it boils, stirring constantly.
- After it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and then add the flour/milk mixture that you just whisked together, stirring it in with the warm milk/sugar very quickly.
- Keep stirring it on low heat until it has the consistency of a pudding.
- Put it aside on your counter top when it’s done and let it cool there for about 15 minutes.
- Then refrigerate it and let it chill.
- After the cream cools and is nice and cold, take your mixer and beat 2 sticks of softened butter into the mixture.
- The cream is now done, and all you need to do is put it in the refrigerator to cool.
Step Two: Make the Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Make your box cake according to package directions. If you want, you can dice up some maraschino cherries and add it to the cake mix, or you can also add a little maraschino cherry juice. I just made a plain chocolate cake because I don’t like a strong cherry taste.
- After you’ve mixed up your cake, grease and flour a very large baking pan. I used a 12 inch by 17 inch pan so the cake would end up fairly thin.
- Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake. You will know the cake is done when you poke it with a toothpick and the toothpick comes out clean.
- When the cake is done baking, let it cool.
- After the cake has cooled, take a wine glass or other small glass to cut out circular pieces of cake.
- Set the cake circles aside, placing them on a large cutting board or other such surface. If the cake circles are thicker than what you want them to be, use a knife to horizontally cut the cake in half.
Step Three: Assembling the Miniature Cakes
- Now that you’ve made the cream filling and cut out your cake circles, it’s time to assemble the miniature cakes. The first thing you need to decide is how many layers you want. I wanted only 2 layers of cake, but you can make more if you want.
- Spread cream filling on top of a cake circle, and then place another cake circle on top of that so your cream filling is “sandwiched” between two cake circles.
- Now put cream filling on top of the second cake circle.
- If you want more than two layers, continue putting cake circles and cream filling until you have as many layers as you want.
- Continue assembling the miniature cakes until you’ve used up all your cake.
Step Four: Making the Chocolate-Covered Cherries
- Take your bark chocolate and melt it on the stove over a very low heat, stirring constantly. If you’re using chocolate chips instead of bark chocolate, put the chocolate chips in a sauce pan, cover with oil, and melt, stirring constantly.
- When the chocolate is melted, take a toothpick and insert it into the cherry.
- Dip the cherry in chocolate and then put the cherry on top of the cake. (I made the mistake of putting my cherries on parchment paper to dry first. After they dried and I removed the cherries from the paper, some of chocolate stuck to the paper and I had to re-dip several of them. Putting them directly on the cake will hopefully work better.)
- I dipped my cherry totally in the chocolate. You can do that or you can dip it 2/3 of the way. I wish I had done that because I think it makes for a prettier presentation to see part of the cherry.
- Continue dipping your cherries until you’ve done enough for your cakes.
Step Five: The Final Touch
- If you have any pink sugar sprinkles on-hand, sprinkle them over the cupcakes as a final touch. I think it makes them look cuter and more festive.
Okay, now you’re done! But before you clean up the mess, it’s time for you to take a little break. Grab a little cake for yourself, and enjoy the sweet yumminess on your tongue! Don’t you agree that the best part of making cakes is eating them!!??
