Every year for my oldest niece’s birthday, I make her cupcakes. I stopped buying gifts for the kids after their 5th birthdays because I had no clue what clothes to buy (we just had a baby, I wasn’t ‘there’ yet) and I figured no parent wants anymore toys than a kid gets for their birthday party anyway. (And now we have 11 nieces/nephews and that gets expensive every year!). I love to bake cupcakes anyway and cake goes with birthdays, so I always ask what kind the kids want and bake them. Last year she wanted red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, this year: black forest cupcakes!
I had never seen a black forest cupcake, but I figured it would be very easy to make, especially since I already have a great recipe for chocolate cupcakes.
You will need:
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2/3 cups cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups cold (strong) coffee or water….but use the coffee!
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1 tub Cool Whip (or aerosol can of whipping cream)
- 1 jar of maraschino cherries
- Baker’s chocolate shavings for garnish
Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and then add in coffee (or water if you prefer), oil and vanilla and whisk. Stir in vinegar and then pour evenly into paper-lined or greased muffin tins.
Bake at 350ºF until cake tester or toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Remove from tins to cool on rack; once cupcakes are cool, scoop out ~1 tbsp of cupcake from top of each cupcake to make a well for the cherry pie filling. Fill each cupcake with cherry pie filling and frost with Cool Whip or whipping cream from a can. I prefer the taste of Cool Whip so I piped some on, the can of whipping cream would be super easy to do as well. Garnish with cherry and chocolate shavings if desired. I didn’t have any baker’s chocolate left, so I threw some chocolate chips into a mini food processor and sprinkled on top — works well too!

- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ⅔ cups cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups cold (strong) coffee or water….but use the coffee!
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1 tub Cool Whip (or aerosol can of whipping cream)
- 1 jar of maraschino cherries
- Baker's chocolate for garnish
- Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
- Add in coffee, oil, and vanilla and whisk.
- Stir in vinegar.
- Spoon into paper-lined or greased muffin cups.
- Bake at 350 until cake tester or toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. (18-20 mins for mini cupcakes).
- Remove from tins to cool on rack.
- Once cupcakes are completely cool, take small spoon and scoop out ~1 tbsp worth of cupcake to make a well for the cherry pie filling.
- Fill all cupcakes with cherry pie filling and frost with Cool Whip or whipping cream from a can.
- Garnish with maraschino (or fresh!) cherry and chocolate shavings.

If you give these a try, let me know! To stream line things never feel guilty about using boxed cake mix!

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