Easy Cheery Cherry Brandy Cake

Tomorrow, Mr Caramel and I are having two wonderful friends over for dinner. I was part of the Honors Fellowship at Belmont Abbey College and I made some wonderful, wonderful friends who are more like a quirky family than anything else. Anyway, I'm having two of them over and of course, I need to cook up all kinds of yummy stuff. In preparation I decided to make my easy (in other words, middle of a long work week) version of my cheery cherry brandy cake. Before you ask, it's cheery because of how much alcohol is in it. The easy part comes in because I am not afraid of using a cake mix when I'm pressed for time and dressing it up. (I do have a from-scratch version of this cake that tastes slightly different. I'll post it when I get around to it.) This time around I made a 13" by 9" rectangle cake but this recipe also makes simply scrumptious cupcakes.

Anyway, enough of my chatting, here's my recipe.

Ingredients

1 box of white cake mix (I like the ones with pudding in the mix)
10 oz bottle of Maraschino cherries
1/4 cup water
about 1/4 cup of brandy
eggs as called for in the cake mix directions
oil as called for in the cake mix directions
1 tsp cherry extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees for dark or non-stick pans or 350 degrees for regular pans. Spray cake tin with cooking spray, or line cupcake cups.
2. Drain cherries. Reserve liquid. Chop cherries.
3. Add water to the liquid you drained from the cherries. Add enough brandy to bring the liquid to one cup (about 1/4 cup).
4. In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, liquid, eggs, oil and cherry extract. Using an electric mixer, mix on medium speed for about 2 - 3 minutes or until well combined.
5. Add cherries and fold in.
6. Pour batter into cake tin and bake according to the directions on the cake mix box.

Ingredients for Topping

1 can of cherry frosting

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup brandy (yes, I did say 1/4 cup)

Maraschino cherries (optional)

Using an electric mixer combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth. Add more brandy if the frosting is too thick or more powdered sugar if it's too runny (only add a little at a time). Spread on cool cake or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Feel free to decorate with cherries.

It's been a long week and it's close to my bedtime so I just spread the frosting (yes, the cake is still in the pan) and added some sprinkles. 

Even though it's super easy and quick it is really, really tasty and it tastes like you've slaved on it for hours. The only hard part - trying not to eat too much. Tell me how this works for you and I promise to share the fancier version of this recipe soon.