Cherry Chocolate Joy

I love love LOVE cherry and chocolate together (and so do a lot of people I know) so this week I decided to make a cake just to eat for the fun of it.  I usually only have time to make cakes for birthdays and other events as gift and things, so it was fun to do a cake just to make me happy.  My mom used to make this chocolate cake with cherry pie filling in the middle and iced with whipped topping so I decided to copy it in my own way.  I tried a new chocolate cake recipe.  I was going for moist-ness, which I defiantly got in this one from cooks.com.


Moist Chocolate Cake

2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
Dash salt
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. boiling water
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together, putting eggs and milk in last. Cocoa can be dissolved in boiling water before adding. Batter is very runny. Put in one 9 x 13 or two 8 inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

This cake batter was very runny and a little hard to get out of the pans and move around, but it tasted so good that I almost didn't mind.  Next time I would flour the pans a little better.

  

I torted the cake with some frosting to act as a dam and almost a whole can of cherry pie filling.  It is pretty important to pipe some frosting around the edge so the cherry will stay inside and not make the cake look like its bleeding.  
I put the top layer on with the help of a plate and a few spatulas and some slight frustration.  I dirty iced this cake, mostly because it is so moist which means it is SO crumbly.  Now that I have tried the dirty ice thing, it is hard to go back to not doing it.  It is just so much smarter.    
I put this cake in the freezer for quite a while and then iced it all nice and pretty and did some shells around the bottom and a little ring around the top. 
Inside this ring, I put the rest of the cherry filling and arranged the cherries around the top in a little circle.  
IT WAS AWESOME!