Cheerwine Chocolate Cake is a rich, moist chocolate cake covered in a chocolate glaze. It’s very similar to a Coca Cola Cake, except the Cheerwine gives it a slight cherry flavor.
It’s a truly fabulous chocolate cake and easy to make in a 9×13-inch pan.
People outside of the South may not be that familiar with Cheerwine. And no, there is no wine in it. It’s a North Carolina produced soft drink flavored with cherry.
If you don’t have Cheerwine, you can use Cherry Coke or Cherry Dr. Pepper.
How to Make Cheerwine Chocolate Cake:
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Bring the Cheerwine, butter, and cocoa powder to a boil. This is called “blooming” the cocoa powder and it prevents the cake from turning out dry.
- Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Let the flour/Cheerwine mixture cool for a minute and then whisk in the egg mixture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- To make the glaze, melt the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in powdered sugar, milk, and Cheerwine and pour over hot cake.
- Let cake cool before slicing.
Cheerwine Chocolate Cake Recipe Tips:
If all you have is salted butter, use it and add a pinch less salt.
To prevent a dry cake, do not overbake and be sure to measure your flour correctly. Fluff the flour up some in the bag. Scoop it with a spoon into a measuring cup and level it with the back of a knife.
Can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days.
Try These Other Amazing Recipes Using Cheerwine:
Cheerwine Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 (12-ounce) can Cheerwine
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup whole buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 2 tablespoons Cheerwine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13-inch pan with baking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium saucepan, combine Cheerwine, butter, and cocoa powder. Whisking constantly, bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, remove from heat.
- Pour Cheerwine mixture over dry ingredients and whisk together.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Let Cheerwine mixture cool a minute and then whisk in egg mixture.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- To make chocolate glaze, melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in powdered sugar, milk, and Cheerwine until smooth. Pour over hot cake.
- Let cool before slicing.
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Recipe adapted from United Tastes of the South
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Absolutely wonderful! I have never left a review for a recipe, but since no one had reviewed this one who actually made it, I thought this one deserved comment. I do a lot of baking, especially homemade layer cakes, so sheet cake recipes don’t usually impress me. Someone gave me a can of cheerwine and told me to try a certain cheerwine cake recipe on the internet, which I could never find. I decided to try this one, because I am not a cherry fan, but I love chocolate. This cake was super easy and soooooo moist! Delicious. The pic on this site shows the cake in a glass pan. I hate baking in glass, so I used my 9×13 metal Wilton cake pan, and had perfect results. I also only had one can of the soda, so I held out the 2 tbsp for the icing and replaced it with 2 extra tbsps of buttermilk in the cake so as to have the same liquid ratio. This worked fine. Although I believe the recipe is perfect as is, I used half and half for the milk in the icing because I only had skim, and when I realized I only had a little over half an ounce of unsweetened chocolate, I used a kitchen scale to measure the difference with semisweet chocolate chips. The icing still tasted great and was not too sweet. Again, this recipe doesn’t need tweaking, but it can handle slight variations according to what you have on hand. I think toasted pecans would also make a nice garnish if desired. Thanks for a great recipe!
I am in NC and love Cheerwine, though I frequently drink the diet version. I am not much for baking, but this seems easy enough & I can’t wait to try it out. PS. The Cheerwine sherbet is awesome, I think they only sell it and also Sun Drop flavored at Food Lion.