Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake

20 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake is a tasty, moist chocolate cake from scratch with a cherry surprise inside! Quick and easy cake recipe to feed a crowd!

This fruity Cherry version of classic Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake is perfect for potlucks, cookouts, and parties! For more crowd pleasing desserts check out all of our easy Cake Recipes.

Texas Sheet Cake with Maraschino Cherries

CHOCOLATE CHERRY TEXAS SHEET CAKE

Much like our Cherry Chocolate Dump Cake, this Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake uses canned cherry pie filling. But instead of a store bought box mix, this cake has a tasty and unbelievably easy homemade chocolate cake batter, just like Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake. It comes together in less than 10 minutes, so quick that you might still be waiting on your oven to preheat!

This is one of the absolute best budget friendly desserts to feed a crowd you will ever find. Most of these ingredients costs less than a couple dollars and are pantry items you can use to make many recipes. The most “costly” ingredient is the cocoa powder. A good quality container of unsweetened cocoa powder only costs about $4 and can easily make several more desserts.

Canned cherry pie filling is one of those pantry items that is inexpensive and can be used in so many quick dessert recipes. It is perfect for cake recipes because it adds so much moisture! When you make this Cherry Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake, grab an extra can or two of cherry pie filling to use on top of Mini Cheesecakes or inside flaky Cherry Turnovers.

MORE DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPES:

This Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake is great to make ahead, which is a huge lifesaver in party planning! You can keep your cake at room temperature for about 3-4 days, so feel free to make the cake a day or two in advance. Make sure to frost your cake while it’s warm. Either frost the same day you bake it or reheat in the oven for 5-10 minutes before frosting the day you serve it.

Cherry Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake tastes so decadent and delicious all on it’s own, but you know chocolate and cherry are begging for a scoop of cool Vanilla Ice Cream! You could also dust your cake with powdered sugar (try stencils for a pretty pattern) or serve your cake with Cool Whip. If you want less chocolate, you can always swap out the chocolate frosting with Buttercream Frosting.

Cherry Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake

VARIATIONS ON CHOCOLATE CHERRY TEXAS SHEET CAKE

  • Cherry Almond: Make a White Texas Sheet Cake by adding 1 teaspoon almond extract and leaving out the cocoa powder. The cake will be a pretty pink color from cherry pie filling. Garnish with toasted almonds and cherries on top of a Cream Cheese Frosting flavored with a bit of almond or cherry extract.
  • Black Forest Texas Sheet Cake: To make this a Black Forest Sheet Cake, substitute almond extract for the vanilla extract and add extra chocolate and brown sugar. Increase to ¾ cup cocoa powder and replace ½ cup sugar with light brown sugar. After frosting hardens, spread a thin layer of Whipped Cream over cake and garnish with cherries.
  • Cake Mix Hack: You can substitute 1 box of Devil’s Food (or other dark chocolate) cake mix instead of the dry ingredients. Leave out the butter and water and increase to 3 eggs.
  • Chocolate Chips: Add in a ½ cup of chocolate chips, like dark chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips. You can use other baking chips like butterscotch chips or caramel chips too!
  • Nuts: Cherries and nuts are great always a winner. Stir in a ½ cup chopped walnut, pecan, or almond pieces to your cake batter, or garnish the top of the cake with your favorite chopped nuts.

Mini Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Bake this cake mix in two 24 cup mini muffin pans for easy bite sized treats for a crowd. There should be enough cake batter for about 42-48 mini cupcakes. Line your muffin pans with cupcake lines and fill 2/3 full of cake batter (made as usual). Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes. Spoon frosting over cupcakes for less mess.

MORE EASY SUMMER DESSERTS

HOW TO STORE CHOCOLATE CHERRY TEXAS SHEET CAKE

  • Serve: Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake can be at room temperature for up 4 days. Keep sheet pan covered with plastic wrap or foil in a cool, dry place or transfer to an airtight container.
  • Store: You can keep your cake in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, but you should bring it to room temperature before serving.
  • Freeze: Freeze directly on the sheet pan, covered tightly covered in plastic and then aluminum foil, for up to 4 months. You can also transfer to a sealed container with parchment separating layers. Thaw on counter, uncovered, before serving. 

Cherry Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake

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Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake

Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake is a tasty, moist chocolate cake from scratch with a cherry surprise inside! Quick and easy cake recipe to feed a crowd!
Yield 20 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

Chocolate Cake

  • 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 can cherry pie filling , 20 ounce

Chocolate Frosting

  • 6 tablespoons milk
  • 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 20 maraschino cherries , for topping

Instructions

Chocolate Cake:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10x15" jelly roll pan with baking spray or line with parchment paper.
  • In your cream together the butter and sugar on high speed until fluffy, then add in the sour cream and eggs on medium-low speed until just combined.
  • Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt.
  • Add some of the flour mixture to the stand mixer, then alternate with water, until all of the flour mixture and water is incorporated.
  • Fold in the pie filling and spread the batter into your pan evenly.
  • Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

  • To a large pot add the milk, cocoa powder and butter on medium heat, whisking until melted and combined.
  • Whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
  • Pour the glaze over the cake while it is still warm and dot the top with cherries.

Nutrition

Calories: 384kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 131mg | Potassium: 78mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 502IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1mg

Chocolate Cherry Texas Sheet Cake collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. What step do you add the butter? My cake is the oven right now. In step 2 & 3, did you mean to mix the eggs and sour cream together in a separate bowl then add the cocoa? Then add that to the flour sugar mixture? Should the butter be creamed into the flour/sugar mixture? I sure hope my cake turns out.

    1. I am so sorry, I am just seeing this tonight. I am sure the recipe has long been cooked/or not but I still want to try to help.

      The butter is added in step 5, not mixed into the batter.

    1. Kind of important right, haha! Sorry about that. The recipe card has been edited to include it now. Thanks for letting me know it was missing.

  2. Hi! This looks and sounds delicious! My question is, can I use cherry pie filling ( canned or fresh ) in place of the marachino cherries? I’m not a fan of the artificial flavour & colouring.
    Thank you!

    1. I’ve edited the recipe card to actually include the cherry pie filling now. Thanks for letting me know.

        1. Hi Mary, I’m so sorry about this, I worked on the recipe to make it clearer and added in the directions on the butter.

    1. Sorry about that! I just edited to include the directions for that too. Thanks for letting me know it was missing. Enjoy!

  3. Did I miss something or read it wrong I thought you had indicated that it had a surprise inside and that was Cherry Pie Filling? I don’t see that in the ingredient list or in the general preparing instructions.

    1. Oh my goodness, thanks for catching that! I originally tested it using the juice and cherries but ultimately decided on using the canned pie filling instead. Looks like the recipe card never got adjusted. I’ve fixed it now and it should read correctly now.