Chocolate Cherry Cake Squares

Cherries are a wonderful and yummy summer fruit. ChuThis and I have been talking about cherries a lot since she and our other friend T got 10 lbs. of cherries from the Mystery Box farm a couple of weeks ago. (They were AMAZING cherries btw.) Also, cherries are pretty much a sure fire way to make sure I'm on J's good side as they are his favorite.

With all of these thoughts of cherries on my mind and no recipe for dessert night as of Monday morning, I embarked on a Google search for recipes with cherries. It was this search that brought me the Chocolate Cherry Cake recipe. Given how popular Cherry M&Ms have been with my circles this summer (if you haven't tried them yet, I highly recommend that you do), I have really enjoyed the flavors of chocolate and cherry together.

I'm slightly embarrassed to say that after all of this discussion of fresh cherries, I did use frozen ones in this recipe. It didn't matter as it was still very good. This is a really easy recipe to make. Just remember to soak the cherries in sugar and almond flavoring before you're ready to make the cake. I did soak the cherries for about 4 hours instead of the recommended 2, but I'm not sure that it made a difference for the flavor. I also didn't do the powdered sugar on top of the cake squares as I've never been a fan of powdered sugar. But it can help the visual appeal of a less than perfect baked good.

Sadly, there are no photos this week as I was in such a hurry to get dessert on the table and it was so popular that it went quickly. I'll have to be sure to get back on the photos for next week.

Want to make your own Chocolate Cherry Cake Squares? Here you go...