If you’re looking for a chocolatey, fudgy, rich dessert, this Flourless Chocolate Cherry Cake is the answer.
It makes a great Christmas day dessert as you can make it ahead, store it at room temperature (no need to take up that valuable fridge or freezer space!) and serve it warm or cold.
It also happens to be gluten free.
With flavours of a black forest tart mixed with the fudgy texture of chocolate brownies, this gorgeously chocolatey cake has all of my favourite flavours!
It stays moist for days, due to the ground almonds, so it’s great to make ahead.
📋 What do we need?
You can use fresh, frozen or even tinned cherries for this recipe. Check out the notes in the recipe card for more info.
🔪 How to make this chocolate and cherry cake
**Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post**.
- Cream the butter and sugar together, then add in vanilla and almond extract.
- Continue to mix, and add in 4 eggs, one at a time. The mixture will look like it’s split at this point, but DON’T WORRY, all will be fine!
- Fold in ground almonds, cocoa powder and baking powder, then stir in melted chocolate and chocolate chips (oh yeah – we’re going triple chocolate!!).
- Transfer it all to a flan tin and press in the cherries. Then bake until the centre is set and a skewer comes out clean.
Once out of the oven, mix together a little cherry jam with a splash of water and brush over the warm cake for a beautiful sticky, shiny glaze.
📺 Recipe Video
Watch How to make this AMAZING gluten free chocolate cherry cake.
wprm-recipe-video
👩🍳PRO TIP Serve this Flourless Chocolate Cherry Cake cold with a nice cup of coffee, or slightly warm (a few seconds in the microwave, or wrap slices in foil and place in a medium oven for 5 minutes) with some thick cream.
I love to swirl a little cherry jam into the cream and serve with a few fresh cherries.
🍽️ More gluten free desserts?
I have quite a few gluten free desserts on my site – here are a few of my favourites:
- Turkish Delight Brownies
- Cherry and Almond Cake (a vanilla version of this recipe)
- Amaretti Cookies
- White Chocolate and Pistachio Blondies (always go down a storm!)
- Orange Drizzle Cake
- Pecan Caramel Cheesecake – no bake!
A delicious gluten free cake that everyone will love!
🍲 More Sweet Treats
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Chocolate Cherry Cake
Ingredients
- 225 g (1 cup minus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter room temperature, cut into chunks
- 200 g (1 cup) golden caster (or granulated) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 4 medium eggs
- 200 g (1 2/3 cups) ground almonds (course almond meal)
- 50 g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder (usually gluten-free, but best to check if required)
- 1 tsp baking powder (ensure it's gluten-free if required)
- 100 g (3.5oz) dark chocolate (70% is good) melted
- 50 g (1/3 cup) chocolate chips
- 300 g fresh or frozen black cherries pitted (see tip in notes section)
- 2 tbsp cherry jam
To Serve:
- thick whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C/325F (fan) and lightly grease a 23cm diameter loose-bottomed flan tin.
- Place the butter in a large bowl with the sugar. Whisk with an electric whisk (or in a stand mixer) until fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).225 g (1 cup minus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, 200 g (1 cup) golden caster (or granulated) sugar
- Add in the vanilla extract and almond extract, then whisk again whilst adding in the eggs, one at a time. It will look like the mixture has split at this point, but don't worry, it will come back together.1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp almond extract, 4 medium eggs
- Fold in the ground almonds, cocoa powder, and baking powder.200 g (1 2/3 cups) ground almonds, 50 g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder
- Fold in the melted chocolate and chocolate chips until thoroughly combined.100 g (3.5oz) dark chocolate (70% is good), 50 g (1/3 cup) chocolate chips
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared flan tin. Level the mixture with the back of a spoon.
- Slice half of the cherries in half and leave half of them whole.300 g fresh or frozen black cherries
- Arrange the whole and halved cherries on top of the cake mixture. Arrange the sliced ones cut-side-up. Push the cherries into the mixture slightly.
- Place in the oven to cook for 40-50 minutes – until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Take out of the oven.
- Mix the cherry jam with 2 tbsp of cold water. Brush on top of the warm cake. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 mins, before removing and placing on a rack to cool further.2 tbsp cherry jam
- Serve topped with thick whipped cream. I like to serve it slightly warm, with a little of the cherry jam swirled into the cream and a few fresh cherries to decorate. You can serve this cake warm (tastes great with ice cream) or room temperature.thick whipped cream
Video
Notes
You can warm individual slices up in the microwave for a few seconds if you’d like to serve it warm. Can I freeze it? Yes, cool, cover and freeze the cake. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator, then allow to come up to room temperature before serving (or warm slices in the microwave for a few seconds if you’d like to serve it warm). Nutritional Information is per serving, without serving suggestion of whipped cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was first posted in March 2017. Updated in November 2020 with new photos and a few tweaks to the recipe to make it even easier.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you). If you do buy, then thank you! That’s what helps us to keep Kitchen Sanctuary running. The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors. For more information please see our Terms & Conditions.
This looks lovely, just the kind of low-carb gooey chocolate cake I’d like to make but I’d like to add sliced pears to the top of the cake rather than cherries – do you think this would work?
This was so good! I used dutch processed cocoa powder and omitted the almond extract (because I was out of it), and it was phenomenal! I made it for a church event and people raved about it. Definitely a keeper.
Very, very rich cake! The flavor is great, but I just found the cake called for too much butter. If I were to make this cake again, I would cut the butter in half. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I learned alot trying it.
I am not able to rate this yet .. but.. I have a question and couldn’t figure out where to ask questions … I have frozen sour cherries (picked and pitted by my dear old 86 year old father 🙂 … could they be substituted?
p.s. I looooooove your blog … so many AMAZING recipes that I share with so many others. … thank you Nicky!
This cake looked good and tasted delicious. It took a lot longer to cook than the recipe says and then we were worried it would be too dry, however it was lovely and moist! Made it with 2 young children and dairy free ingredients – it was really easy. Thanks Kitchen Sanctuary for the recipe!
Hello!
The recipe looks delicious. I wanted to try with Yacon syrup or honey. Any idea about how I could adjust the rest of the recipe in relation to this change?
Many thanks, Chiara
I made this cake was delicious but had to bake for 1hour and was a little hard round the edges!!
Hi Nicky,
This looks so delicious, thanks for sharing it. I would love to make it for Christmas, but I can’t find cherries where we live. Can this cake be made with another fruit? I am glad it’s gluten-free as one of my sons can’t tolerate gluten.
Lovely, chocolate treat, cherries a pleasure, going down well with family
Thank you for this recipe
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made this yesterday as a dessert for dinner with guests (I know that it’s risky trying a new recipe when you are entertaining, but it paid off!). It was easy to make (I adapted the method for the Thermomix) and everyone really enjoyed it – it is moist, fudgey and delicious! And I have plenty left to enjoy … not sure that that’s a good thing at this time of year.