Homemade Cherry Chip Cake

This Homemade Cherry Chip Cake is made from scratch and bursting with sweet cherry flavor. It is the perfect shade of pink from nothing other than the maraschino cherry juice from the jar! Chopped up maraschino cherries are folded into the batter to make sure the cherry flavor really comes through in this super fun, moist cherry cake that is perfect for almost any celebration!

Cherry chip was one of my favorite cake flavors growing up, but we can make it so much better from scratch with real ingredients instead of the Betty Crocker cherry chip cake mix that doesn’t taste anything like what I remember from my childhood. Is this cake retro-modern? Is it vintage? I don’t know, but it’s definitely delicious!

You just can’t eat a slice of this perfectly pink cake with lovely, fun cherry flavor and bits of actual maraschino cherry throughout and feel anything other than happy.

If you love making cake recipes from scratch, be sure not to miss my Best Red Velvet Cake , Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting , or Homemade German Chocolate Cake !

Why we love this Vintage Cherry Cake

Pretty in pink. There is just something about the pretty pink chiffon color and maraschino cherries that make me think of frothy 1950’s prom dresses and 80’s movies.
Real cherry flavor. Each bite of this homemade cherry chip cake bursts with sweet maraschino cherry flavor from the maraschino cherry juice from the jar.
Great texture. Lots of chopped up maraschino cherries are folded into the velvety cake batter and adds a wonderful texture to the super moist cake.

A frosted cherry cake on a white cake stand with swirls of frosting and maraschino cherries with stems decorating the top. - 2

What You’ll Need

Sugar: You’ll use white granulated sugar for the cake and powdered sugar for the cherry frosting. It’s a lot, but remember that this is a big cake that serves at least 16 people.
Salted Butter: I always use salted butter in my baking. If using unsalted butter, you will need to add ¼ teaspoon of table salt for each ½ cup stick of butter.
Vanilla Extract: Balances all of the other flavors for a well-rounded taste.
Sour Cream: Adds richness and moisture to the cake batter.
Egg & Egg Whites: A combination of a whole egg with mostly egg whites serves to create a nice light and fluffy texture while also letting the pink color show up nice and bright without as much yellow from too many egg yolks.
All-Purpose Flour: No need to go out and purchase cake flour for this cherry chip cake recipe. Unbleached all-purpose flour works just fine and still gives a lovely tender crumb.
Baking Powder: This is the only leavening agent and it gives a nice rise for a fluffy texture.
Milk: Add additional moisture to the cake batter.
Maraschino Cherries: You’ll also need the maraschino cherry juice from the jar of cherries, so don’t pour it out.
Vegetable Shortening: I like using half butter and half shortening in the frosting because it lets the cherry flavor shine through more than when only butter is used.

Ingredients for making a cherry chip cake. - 3

How to Make Cherry Chip Cake from Scratch

Prep. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper circles and spray with baking spray.
Cream. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy and light.
Add eggs & vanilla. Beat in the egg, egg whites, and vanilla extract until combined and light. Be sure to stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
Add half of the dry ingredients. Add half of the flour and all of the baking powder, mixing on low speed just until combined and you can still see a few streaks of flour remaining.

Adding an egg, egg whites, and vanilla to creamed butter and sugar in a mixing bowl surrounded by other cake ingredients. - 4

Alternate adding wet ingredients. Add the sour cream and reserved cherry juice, mixing on low speed just until everything comes together. Then mix in the remaining flour, followed by the milk. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl again.
Stir in maraschino cherries. Add the chopped cherries to the cake batter and stir them in gently until evenly dispersed.

Adding cherry juice and sour cream to cake batter in a large mixing bowl. - 5

Bake . Pour the cake batter evenly into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
Cool completely . Level off the tops of the cakes, if needed, before assembling.

Maraschino cherry cake batter in 8-inch cake pans. - 6

Make the frosting. Meanwhile, beat the butter and shortening in a large stand mixer for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add the powdered sugar alternately with the maraschino cherry juice, beating well between each addition. Be sure to stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
Assemble. Place the bottom cake layer on a cake plate and frost with about 1 ½ cups of the frosting. Add the next two layers with frosting between them, then frost the outside of the cake, reserving some of the frosting for piping decorative swirls on top of the cake.

Homemade cherry frosting in a mixing bowl. - 7

Decorate. Transfer the remaining frosting to a piping bag fitted with a decorative tip. Pipe swirls or a border around the top of the cake and decorate with additional maraschino cherries.

A close side view of a homemade cake decorated with cherry frosting and maraschino cherries. - 8

Substitutions and Variations

Use a different frosting. This cake flavor is also excellent with my popular cream cheese frosting , chocolate frosting , rainbow chip frosting , or vanilla buttercream frosting .
Add chocolate. Add mini chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to the cake batter for a cherry chocolate chip cake!
Make it a sheet cake or cupcakes. You can bake this cake in a 9×13-inch pan for 25 to 30 minutes if you don’t want to bother stacking and decorating a layer cake. You can also halve this recipe and use it to make cupcakes, filling them ¾ full and baking for 18-20 minutes. For either approach, you can get away with half a batch of frosting instead of the full batch.

Maraschino cherries decorating the top of a cherry chip cake. - 9

PRO TIP: Alternate adding wet and dry ingredients.

Adding all the wet ingredients at once can make the batter curdle or separate because it overwhelms the butter and sugar that you just creamed together.

And if you add all of the dry ingredients at once, your batter is likely going to be really thick and the chance that you will over mix the batter goes way up, which results in a tougher cake without the moist, tender crumb that you want in a layer cake.

Instead of dumping all the wet and dry ingredients in at once, it’s best to add them alternately, in two or three additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and stirring only until just combined each time.

Slices of cherry chip cake on white plates. - 10

Storage & Freezing Instructions

Keep the cake covered with a cake dome or with plastic wrap until ready to serve. Store any leftover cake slices in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge for up to 5 days. If stored in the fridge, let the cake come to room temperature before serving. Cold cake usually tastes stale.

You can also freeze the cake layers, cake slices, or the full cake for up to 2 months. Just wrap well in plastic wrap before freezing. Let thaw completely on the counter before serving.

There are three common culprits behind dry cherry cake. The first is simply over baking the cake, which will dry it out every time. I prefer looking for crumbs on my cake tester rather than a totally clean result so I know the cake is still moist in the middle. The second reason for dry cake is usually too much flour. If this is a common occurrence, I recommend fluffing the flour first, then spooning it into your measuring cup before leveling it off with a knife to avoid adding too much flour to the cake batter. A third cause of dry cake is over beating the cake batter, which tends to result in a more dense, drier cake.

The best way is to chop the cherries so the pieces aren’t too large. You can also toss them with a tablespoon or two of your flour to help suspend them in the cake batter, but I don’t typically find this to be necessary.

You could certainly bake a cake with fresh cherries or tart frozen cherries, but it wouldn’t be the same as this maraschino cherry cake. I don’t recommend using other cherry options as a substitute for this particular recipe.

The secret to a moist cake is the proper ratio of fat to flour to sugar. Too little sugar and a cake will be dry. Too little butter or oil and you won’t have nice moist cake layers. I also recommend using room temperature ingredients to get the best results so the cake layers bake up even and moist.

A side view of sliced cherry chip cake on a white cake stand. - 11

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Did you make this recipe?

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