This moist vegan chocolate cherry cake is a super easy and delicious sponge cake recipe that can be also baked in a loaf pan, on a sheet, or as cupcakes! Served with a scoop of vegan ice cream on top, you’ll quickly convince any skeptics with this stunning cake!
Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake
Chocolate, cherries and ice cream – There’s almost nothing better like this incredibly delicious combination! If you love my Vegan Cherry Cheesecake Brownies or the popular German Mole Cake or Grandma’s Danube Wave Cake, you’ll also love this easy chocolate cherry cake! Most importantly, this recipe is really super quick and easy to make, so it’ll be surely become one of your new favorite go-to chocolate desserts!
Ingredients for this recipe
For the chocolate sponge cake you only need a few simple pantry staple ingredients that you may have already in your pantry anyway. Just mix everything together, add cherries and put it in the oven! Of course, you can also use other fruits if you want – here you can get creative!
- All-purpose or spelt flour: or use gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour instead. A mix of light flour and whole wheat flour also works well.
- Cocoa powder: please use baking cocoa and not drinking chocolate!
- Baking powder & baking soda: helps the cake to rise wonderfully!
- Pinch of salt: to balance out the sweetness.
- Sugar: I used a mix of raw cane sugar and coconut blossom sugar, but you can use any other kind of sugar you have on hand.
- Cherries + their juice: Feel free to use other fruit (canned or fresh) and another fruit juice. Or just replace the juice with water or plant milk.
- Vegetable oil: e.g. sunflower or canola oil or melted coconut oil. If you’re on a low-fat diet you could also replace some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce.
- Vanilla extract: or ground vanilla for more flavor.
- Apple cider vinegar: to make the leavening agents react better. However, you can also use another acid such as white vinegar or lemon juice.
- Cornstarch: or try arrowroot starch.
How to make Vegan chocolate cherry cake
As always, I recommend checking out these step-by-step instructions first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Prepare the cherries
Drain the cherries and reserve the juice. Then carefully mix the cherries with the cornstarch. Also, prepare your baking pan by lightly greasing the sides and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
Step 2: Make the batter
First sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder into a large bowl. Then add baking soda, sugar, and salt and whisk together. In a measuring jar, whisk together cherry juice, oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar. Then pour it into the flour mixture and stir with a whisk or spoon until until just combined.
*Note: Do not stir the batter too long, otherwise the cake won‘t be fluffy, but rather dense. If you like, you can stir some vegan chocolate chips or chopped nuts into the batter.
Step 3: Pour the batter into the pan and bake it
Pour half of the batter into a prepared baking pan and spread half of the cherries on top. Then pour the rest of the batter on top and finally spread the remaining cherries on top. Bake the chocolate cherry cake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Then let cool completely.
Make your cake extra special!
Once your cake is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool completely. If you like, you can brush some cherry juice, liqueur or cherry compote on top. This adds not only more flavor to your chocolate cherry cake but it also helps the cake stay moist longer.
Finally, I like to decorate the cake with desiccated coconut and fresh cherries. However, feel free to do that however you like! Served with a scoop of vegan vanilla or coconut ice cream, it tastes even better – especially on warm days in the summer!
How can I store the cake?
It is best to store the chocolate cherry cake in an airtight cake box or another container in the refrigerator. This way it won’t dry out and will still taste delicious after 3-4 days. Remove the cake at least 20 minutes before you want to eat it or warm it in the microwave for a few seconds. This will make your piece of cake soft and fluffy again – just like freshly baked! However, leftover pieces can be easily frozen and thawed as needed.
This vegan chocolate cherry cake recipe is:
- Quick and easy to make
- Egg-less
- Dairy-free (lactose-free)
- Can be made gluten-free
- Wonderfully chocolaty
- Fruity and moist
- Soft and fluffy
- Totally delicious!
- Perfect for any occasion!
More Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipes to try
- Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Moist Vegan Zucchini Brownies
- Best Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Vegan Snickers Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Pancakes
- Chocolate Raspberry Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Pancakes
- Best Vegan Brownies
- One-Bowl Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Kinder Milchschnitten
If you try this vegan chocolate cherry cake recipe, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a photo of your dessert and share it on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your remakes! Happy baking! 🙂
Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cake
Author:Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose or spelt flour or gluten-free flour*
- 6 tbsp (40 g) cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp (8 g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (6 g) baking soda or 2 tsp more baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
- 1 cup (240 ml) juice from the cherries or sub water or plant milk
- ⅓ cup (90 g) vegetable oil e.g. sunflower or canola oil or melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 (350 g) can of sour cherries 12.3 oz drained weight or use fresh cherries
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
To serve (optional)
- desiccated coconut
- cherries
- vegan ice cream
Instructions
*Note: Be sure to check out the recipe video as well as the step-by-step pictures + tips at the top of the post!
- Preheat the oven to 356 °F (180 °C). Lightly grease a 9-inch (22-24 cm) springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Drain the cherries well and reserve the juice. Then add the cornstarch to the cherries and gently toss to coat.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder into a large bowl. Then add baking soda, sugar, and salt and whisk together.
- In a measuring jar, whisk together cherry juice, oil, vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar. Then pour it into the flour mixture and mix with a whisk or spoon until just combined (do not over-mix, or the cake will be dense).
- Pour half of the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread half of the cherries on top. Then pour the rest of the batter on top and finally spread the rest of the cherries on top.
- Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely (if you like, you can brush some cherry juice, liqueur or cherry compote on top which helps the cake to stay moist longer).
- Sprinkle the cake with desiccated coconut and garnish with fresh cherries. Serve with a scoop of vegan ice cream and enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: Instead of all-purpose or spelt flour, you can use gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour. A mix of light flour and whole wheat flour also works well. If using whole wheat flour only the cake may be too dense.
- Oil-free: If you are on a low-fat diet, you could replace some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce.
- Sugar: I used a mixture of raw cane sugar and coconut blossom sugar, but you can use any type of sugar. If using syrup, you should use a little less cherry juice.
- Variation: Feel free to fold some vegan chocolate chips or chopped or nuts into the batter last.
- Please read my blog post for more information about this recipe!
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Hi! I made this recipe today. I didn’t have cherry juice so used almond milk. The batter was pretty thick so I had to add more almond milk to make a runny batter.
I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hi Bianco,
Would it be OK to skip the cocoa powder?
Thank you!
You can use more flour instead! 🙂
Is this cake sturdy enough to make into a layer cake? What would you suggest to make it more moist (one comment said it was a bit dry) and would you split it into two 6” pans or adjust the recipe otherwise for 6” pans? I’m thinking of using it with a chocolate Swiss meringue butter cream, cherry compote and ganache in the layers. Thank you!
Hi Annie,
that sounds great! However, I recommend using my best vegan chocolate cake recipe for the cake layers without fruit in the cake. You can also check out my vegan black forest cake recipe!
Greetings,
Bianca 🙂
Truly simple and delicious!
The cake turned out a bit more dry for me but this was matched by the generous layer of cherries in the middle. I used cherry water reserved from thawing the frozen cherries so I’d love to know what it would have tasted with pure cherry juice or plant milk! Perhaps I also baked it a bit long. I used a 9 inch pan as instructed but mine did not appear as tall.
Regardless, my whole family loved it so I’m very grateful to have stumbled upon this recipe! :))
Great! 🙂 I’m glad your family loved the cake. Thank you so much for your lovely feedback! You can definitely try it again with pure cherry juice and an 8-inch pan. Enjoy your evening! ♡
How would you make these into cupcakes? Is it just timed differently and everything else is the same?
Muffins will take about 25 minutes! 🙂
I also recommend doing a chopstick test.
I tried this recipe because of a vegan friend who visited me and wanted to surprise her. The best thing about this recipe that you don’t need to buy special (sometimes expensive) vegan ingredients you can bake it easily. Preparing is simple, instructions are clear and the result is amazing. Delicious, soft and fluffy! I’m sure I will bake it again soon. Thanks!
It’s so nice that you’ve made this for your friend! I’m happy that it turned out good and you both were happy with the result. <3
I made this delicious cake for my wedding anniversary. It is very easy to prepare and so yummy!
Yay, I’m so happy to hear that! <3
I really want to make this recipe but I was wondering whether the cherry juice from the can is really more like juice or more syrup. In the Netherlands we can only buy cherries in syrup so I would want to try this but I don’t want to risk ruining my cake of course! What did you use?
Here in Germany it is more like water with a little sugar. When your cherries really are canned in syrup, I would recommend to use a little water (maybe mixed with a tablespoon of your syrup) instead.
Dear Bianka,
I ‘ve just made thie recipe, it’s super easy
The cake is so tasty and it’ s deliciosly fruity, perfect for hot summer sunday and my family loved it
Thank you very much for sharing your recipes with all the steps and come almost the same like your’s
Thank you so much for your great feedback! So glad you enjoyed this cake! 🙂