#COOKING WITH CLORIS--CHOCOLATE CHERRY ALMOND CAKE

Everyone loves home-baked desserts, but many people don’t have the time to make them. All that measuring and mixing is time-consuming and usually winds up making a mess that then requires added clean-up time. You shouldn’t feel guilty about using a cake mix when you’re pressed for time. However, by adding a few extra ingredients, you can create something that moves your basic cake mix to the next level.

Semi-Homemade Chocolate Cherry Almond Cake

Ingredients:

One box chocolate cake mix*

Additional ingredients as noted on cake mix box*

1/2-teaspoon almond extract

2 cups frozen dark sweet cherries, quartered

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/4-teaspoon vanilla

1-2 T. milk

1/4-cup almond slivers

*I used Pillsbury’s Purely Simple cake mix. It contains no preservatives or artificial flavors. Basically, what they’ve done is pre-mixed the dry ingredients for you. You add the wet ingredients. In this case, a stick of butter, a cup of milk, and three eggs.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

Prepare cake batter following mix directions, adding almond extract with your wet ingredients.

Fold in cherries and white chocolate chips.

Pour into bundt pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick poked into center of cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10-15 minutes. Remove cake from pan and allow to cool completely.

Mix confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and one tablespoon of milk. Stir in additional milk one teaspoon at a time until mixture is the proper consistency for drizzling. Drizzle over top of cake. Sprinkle with almonds.