Valentine's Day Dessert - Sweet Chocolate Cherry Bombs

Cordial Cherries remind me of childhood. Not that I ate a lot of them as a kid, but I sure wanted to.  When I was in 4th grade, I attended a Christmas party with my group of  friends. Everyone in attendance purchased one gift for the gift exchange.  I honestly don't remember how we chose who got what gift, all I remember was being so jealous of the girl that got a box of cordial cherries and two big candy canes in her package. Oh, how I wished that were my gift.  I received a beautiful glass jewelry box, which didn't thrill me in the moment, but I soon came to realize it was a wonderful gift.  I held onto that box for many years.  It always reminded me of my grade school friends.  I'm sure had I gotten the box of sweets, as I had hoped all those years ago, I would not ever have given this a second thought. Isn't it funny what we remember?

My love of chocolates has grown even greater in my adulthood and I'm always trying to find new ways to create something fun. I have been seeing lots of cake pop recipes floating around the web this Valentine's Day and it got me thinking about other things to do with the gooey cake/frosting mixture that is in the center of the pops.  So with this thought swimming around in my head, I opened my refrigerator and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flaming red of maraschino cherries and inspiration hit. Combine a cake pop recipe with a maraschino cherry and make it look like a big cordial cherry. YUM!

My Sweet Chocolate Cherry Bombs are coated in tempered pure chocolate and they are delicious.  If you aren't comfortable tempering chocolate, you can simply use dark confectionery coating/candy melts.  Click here for detailed instructions about melting chocolate/confectionery coating. I used a Pillsbury Devil's Food cake mix and blended it with Pillsbury Classic White Frosting.  Change it up a bit if you'd like.  Try using chocolate frosting blended with the chocolate cake or perhaps a white cake blended with vanilla frosting.  That white version would actually look more similar to a cordial cherry once cut open. Any way you decide to make them, I'm sure they will be sweet!

Ingredients:
1 Pillsbury Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tub Pillsbury Classic White Frosting*
50 Maraschino Cherries with stems
16 oz. tempered semi-sweet chocolate (or
  dark confectionery coating/candy melts)

Special equipment needed:
2 - 8" or 9" cake pans or 1 - 13"x9" pan
no-stick cooking spray
hand held mixer
paper towels
parchment paper or non-stick foil
baking sheet

*UPDATE: When I first made this recipe I just went on-line and found a recipe for cake balls and they used the whole tub of frosting. I did that to make these and they worked out well. I really liked the flavor which reminded me of a HoHo. A few people have commented that their cake balls weren't holding together well with this much frosting. Recently, I have experimented with using less frosting and mixing my cake and frosting with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, as I've read where some people use as little as 2 tablespoons for a whole cake.  I used that idea to make my Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls and used 1/4 cup of frosting. The texture is great and the flavor is very chocolatey. So, to make these you may want to start with a smaller amount of frosting and add more until you find the flavor and texture you like best.

Instructions:  Makes 50 Cherry Bombs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pan/s by spraying with no-stick cooking spray. Blend cake mix, water, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl until moistened.  Using a hand held mixer , beat on medium speed for two minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan/s.  Bake for 29-35 minutes (see package for specific times for each pan size). Cool cake completely.

Crumble cooled cake into a large mixing bowl.  Add frosting and mix until well combined.  Scoop mixture out by the tablespoonful.  I use a small ice cream scoop to make easy work of this task.  Roll each scoop into a ball.

Drain maraschino cherries and pat dry with paper towels.  Press one cherry into the center of each cake ball.  Bring the cake mixture up and around the cherry.  Roll in between your two hands to form a nice ball.

Melt and temper semi-sweet chocolate or melt confectionery coating/candy melts.  Click here for detailed melting instructions. Dip cake covered cherries in chocolate.  Set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate if using tempered semi-sweet chocolate until set, about 10 minutes.  If using dark candy melts, place you cherry bombs in the freezer until set, about 5 minutes.  Bring to room temperature before serving.

If you like this recipe, please share it with others by using the share buttons below. I really appreciate being Stumbled Upon and Pinned, and am always grateful to those of you that share my ideas on your website. I do request that you don't post my entire tutorial, but rather share a picture with a link. If you make this recipe, I'd love for you to send me a photo to beth@hungryhappenings.com so that I can share it in my Reader's Gallery. I link up to lots of websites that are listed here. Thank you for visiting Hungry Happenings

-Beth

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