Cherry Chocolate Cake

My birthday was this week! February 9th to be exact and my co-workers and I always celebrate with food. I'm usually in charge of cakes and since mine are (not to brag but true:) ) pretty great, I had to make my own. I chose to go with one of my favorite flavor combinations: chocolate and cherry. I top it off with some homemade whipped cream and a cherry. It's almost like a sundae in cake form!

Cake:

1 box chocolate cake mix (see box for additional ingredients, substitute water with milk and use eggs at room temperature)

1 sm box of INSTANT chocolate pudding

1 can of Cherry Pie filling

Frosting:

2 pints heavy whipping cream

2tbs confectioners sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract (clear if possible)

*optional jar of hot fudge...YUM

Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease two 9 inch cake pans. Prepare cake according to directions on the box. Substitute the water for milk and use room temperature eggs. Add in box of pudding. Beat mixture for 6 minutes on medium speed. Fold in 2/3 of Cherry Pie filling. Reserve the remainder for later. Bake for 22-28 minutes, cake is done when a tooth pick is inserted in the center and comes out clean. Cool on baking racks.

Pour whipping cream, vanilla and sugar into a chilled bowl. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over beat because you'll end up with sweet butter instead : ).

Spread the bottom layer with some of the whipped cream mixture and the remaining cherries from the can of pie filling. At this point just use the cherries because the filling will ooze out of the sides. Place the top layer on the filling. Frost with the remaining whipped cream. For details like the picture I filled a piping bag with the whipped cream and used a star tip around the top and bottom of the cake.

*OPTIONAL*

You may poke holes in the cake while it is still warm and spread the hot fudge (heated up) over the bottom layer. After it cools follow the remaining steps to finish the cake.

*just FYI the cake shown was a two layer six-inch cake.