Cake in a waffle iron.  Stop what you’re doing– this is BIG!  The best thing that’s happened to dessert (and breakfast, for that matter) since apple pie.  This Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake is super decadent with rich chocolate, luscious cream, and tart cherries.  A huge upgrade from your typical soggy toaster waffle and just as easy to make!  Join the waffle cake revolution! P.S. There’s a gluten free option!

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Note: This post was originally published on my food blog, A Bite of Inspiration (read more about it in this post here.)  It’s been slightly edited and modified to make the content even more inspiring and the recipe even more delicious! Enjoy!

Fun fact of the day.  Did you know that with only 4 simple ingredients, you can create a decadent, incredibly delicious waffle cake that looks like breakfast, but tastes like dessert?  Yup– you read that right.  Only 4 ingredients!  How easy is that?  Making cake in a waffle iron is genius because 1) it’s way faster than baking it and 2) it creates a moist interior and a crispy exterior that’s downright addicting.  This delicious Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake will be your new go-to waffle cake recipe for anything from breakfast-in-bed to late night dessert.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought this would be a great recipe to bring back from my old food blog, A Bite of Inspiration (read more about it here).  My original inspiration for this post was an episode of Kids Baking Championship where the kids made “breakfast desserts”.  The pint-sized contestants were charged with creating huge layer cakes that looked like pancakes or waffles, but tasted like… well, cake!  So basically these cakes looked like breakfast, but tasted like dessert (aka dessert waffle recipes).  Pretty clever, right?  So, I decided to create my own waffle cake recipe and came up with this delicious black forest variety.  SO GOOD!  Dessert waffle recipes are officially my new favorite.

And, as I said, with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I was thinking that this Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake would make a pretty sexy Valentine’s Day breakfast, brunch, or dessert!  With all that silky whipped cream, decadent chocolate, and plump red cherries– it’s the perfect “I love you” waffle cake recipe.  Plus both cherries AND chocolate are aphrodisiacs, so there we go! 😉  (Apparently avocados and olive oil are aphrodisiacs too– who would have thought? check out this list here).

This cake looks fancy because of all the layers of sticky cherry and smooth whipped cream decadence, but it’s SO easy to make.  Perfect for Valentine’s Day because you can spend more time with your date and less time slaving away over a hot oven.  You just take chocolate cake batter (store-bought to save time) and throw it in a waffle maker.  This creates a beautiful chocolate waffle with a moist, cake-like consistency and crispy edges.  I actually didn’t own a waffle maker prior to being inspired to create this recipe (tragic, I know), so I bought the Hamilton Beach 4-Piece Belgian Waffle Maker specifically for this cake.  It’s AMAZING!  Affordable price and makes beautiful dessert waffles for this recipe!

To start creating your Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake masterpiece, you make six delicious waffle “cakes”, allow them to cool, and then the fun starts!  A little whipped cream along the edges with tons of juicy, sour cherries in the middle.  Delicious!  And here’s the best part!  Because waffles take way less time to cook than baking a traditional cake does, you go from batter to layered cake in just 20 minutes!  Yup– this recipe creates incredible dessert waffles faster than you can say “good morning”!

One more quick note for gluten free folks (I didn’t forget about you!) Since I created this recipe several years ago before I was diagnosed with a gluten allergy, this recipe wasn’t orignally created to be gluten free.  However, I recently decided to try making this into a gluten free waffle cake using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix and it actually worked!  The waffles didn’t puff up quite as much, so the cake was a little shorter, but it still tasted delicious!  You can also try using King Arthur Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix, Simple Mills Almond Flour Mix Chocolate Muffin & Cake Mix, or any other packaged GF cake mix that you love and trust!  Gluten free waffle cake?  Easy peasy!

Whether you make this Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake for a date on Valentine’s Day or just for your family on a Sunday morning, you and your loved ones will absolutely swoon over this recipe! ❤️

Who here celebrates Valentine’s Day with breakfast or brunch?  Anyone try this Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake recipe for Valentine’s Day (or any other day?) Let me know in the comments below!  Let’s chat. 😃

Looking for more? Browse through my recent recipes here! Check out my favorite smoothie recipe here and the best EVER protein snack recipe here.

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Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake

This decadent Chocolate Cherry Waffle Cake is perfect for breakfast or dessert! It's filled with rich chocolate, luscious whipped cream, and juicy cherries for an amazing treat.  Ready in just 20 mins!  See recipe notes below for gluten free option.

Course Dessert

Cuisine gluten free option, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Vegetarian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6

Calories 319 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 bowl chocolate cake batter made according to package directions from a standard (17 oz) store-bought package of cake mix
• 1 (7 oz) can light, real dairy whipped cream
• 1 (21 oz) jar sour cherries see recipe note below
• Chocolate sauce for drizzling

Instructions

1. Make 6 waffles using the chocolate cake batter, according to your waffle maker's instructions. I do about a ⅓ cup of batter for 3-4 minutes. If you have a waffle maker that makes larger waffles, adjust the amount of batter and cooking time, as necessary.

2. Allow the waffles to cool completely for about 5-10 miutes. It's super important that you let the waffles cool, so that the whipped cream won't melt when you stack your cake.  You can also stick the waffles in the refrigerator in you're short on time.

3. Once waffles are cool, put one waffle on a plate. Spray whipped cream around the outer edges of the waffle. Fill the the inside of the waffle with a 3-4 tablespoons of cherries. Top with another waffle.
4. Repeat step 3 with the remaining layers, including the top layer. Drizzle chocolate sauce on the top and around the plate. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

If you can't find jarred sour cherries, feel free to replace them with canned cherry pie filling.

You may need to tweak the ingredient amounts a little bit depending on what kind of waffle maker you're using and the size of your waffles.

If you're using a waffle maker similar to mine (makes 4 square waffles at a time), you should have enough batter to make 8 waffles.  I like to make all 8 waffles and then choose the 6 prettiest ones for the cake... and eat the other 2! You can also attempt to make an 8 layer cake, but it will be less stable and easier to topple.

For a gluten free waffle cake, use your favorite packaged gluten free chocolate cake mix! See post above for brand suggestions.