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As you may know, Dr Oetker is a well-known German baking brand that produces a lot of baking ingredients and cake mixes. Dr Oetker´s Kirschli Kuchen is one such cake mix that happens to be one of my mum´s favourites. She requested one for her birthday, but obviously I refused to make a cake from a box! Kirschli Kuchen is delicious though, so I decided to come up with my own copycat recipe for it!
Think of Kirschli Kuchen as a Chocolate and Cherry Cake! A light sponge, specked with dark chocolate and finished with cherries. You can make the Kirschli Kuchen in a 26cm round tin or as a traybake and you will see from the recipe below that it is extremely quick and easy to do! The cake tastes best on the day after it is made, so I´d recommend making it the night before you plan to serve it!
What is Kirschli Kuchen?
Kirschli Kuchen is an extremely easy yet delicious cake! It´s made from a plain sponge mix to which you add some finely chopped dark chocolate. The specks of chocolate are distributed throughout the batter and give the cake a light, but not overpowering, chocolate taste. A perfect combination if you ask me!
The most important thing in Kirschli Kuchen are of course cherries! The cherries (“Kirschen” in German) are scattered over the cake just before baking. You want to gently press them down onto the cake mix, but not submerge them fully. The cake will rise quite a bit in the oven, and you want the cherries to remain largely near the surface of the cake. In Germany, jars of “Sauerkirschen” can be found in every supermarket! In the UK, they are a little harder to come by, but I have seen them in large supermarkets like ASDA or Morrisons. You should try and find something labelled as “dark/black cherries” or “Morello cherries”, which in the UK are often found in tins (check the tinned fruit aisle in the supermarket). You will need about 380g of cherries once drained, so make sure you check the drained weight on the tin as you may need two.
More German Baking Recipes
I have loads of German baking recipes on my blog! Some of my all-time favourites are listed below, so go check them out if you are looking for more inspiration!
- Black Forest Gateau | “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte”
- Laugenbrezeln | German Pretzels
- Baked Chocolate Cheesecake | “Russischer Zupfkuchen”
- Seeded and Carrot Loaf | “Muntermacher”
- Strawberry Flan Cake | “Erdbeerboden”
- Marbled Traybake with Cherries and Chocolate | “Donauwellen”
- Beesting Cake | “Bienenstich”
- Enriched Dough Plait filled with Chocolate and Nuts | “Nusszopf”
- German Baked Cheesecake | “Käsekuchen”
- Bauernbrot | Classic German Bread Baking
- “Haselnussbrot” – Hazelnut Shortbread Biscuits dipped in Chocolate
- Chocolate-Orange Crescent Biscuits | Schoko-Orangen Kipferl
- Plum Crumble Cake | Zwetschenkuchen mit Streuseln
- Kirschlikuchen | Cherry and Chocolate Cake
- Neujahrsbrezel | Enriched Dough Plait for New Year’s Day
- Laugenzöpfe | German Breakfast Rolls
- Chocolate and Hazelnut Bundt Cake | Nusskuchen mit Nussglasur
Dr Oetker´s Kirschli Kuchen | Chocolate and Cherry Cake
German Copycat Recipe
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 175g butter or margarine, softened
- 175 caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 225g flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 380g dark cherries (drained weight)
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly grease a 34x20cm rectangular tray or a 26cm round tin and line with baking parchment.
- Put all the ingredients apart from the chocolate and cherries into a large mixing bowl. Then beat for about 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined and the batter is smooth.
- Briefly mix in the chopped dark chocolate until evenly distributed throughout the cake batter.
- Carefully transfer the mixture to the baking tray and level the surface.
- Scatter the drained cherries over the cake and gently press them down. Don´t push them completely into the batter as the cake will still rise and you want the cherries to stay close to the top.
- Finally, bake in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Make sure you leave the cake to cool completely, before dusting it with icing sugar and cutting it to serve.
