Moist Cherry Sheet Cake is topped with a homemade almond buttercream frosting. It is easy and SO delicious!!
Cherry sheet cake is packed full of delicious cherry flavors!!! If you love cherry like I do you’ll also love Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes, Cherry Almond Cupcakes, and Glazed Cherry Bars.
I love cherries!
I love to eat fresh cherries, I love pictures and prints of cherries (they are just so cheery), and I love cherry flavored things. I know, I know, maraschnio cherries are filled with sugar and have lost some of their true flavoring, but they are SO good in desserts and drinks!
I think you’ll REALLY like this Cherry Sheet Cake. My favorite part is, well all of it because of all things cherry!
The frosting is the “cherry on top” as it has a little something extra. I added one of my favorites – almond extract! Cherry and almonds are just a perfect pairing. We have tried a lot of fruity cakes recently, but this one has to be my favorite. My second favorite is Fruit Pizza – it’s so good!! If you love cherries, then you gotta try this dessert. It’s AMAZING!
How to make cherry sheet cake
PREP. Preheat oven to 350.
BLEND. Begin by adding your cherries to a blender or food processor and blending.
COMBINE. Mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water in a large bowl until well blended. Add JELL-O mix and pureed cherries. Mix well.
BAKE. Pour into a greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cake cool.
FROST + ENJOY! While cake is cooling make frosting by creaming together the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar, almond extract, and milk – blend well. Frost cake. ENJOY!
Variations
This recipe uses cherry Jell-O gelatin powder for flavoring. This means you can easily substitute the cherry flavor for strawberry or raspberry and the maraschino cherries for cut strawberries or raspberries.
Also, this cherry flavored cake would pair really well with chocolate. You can top the current recipe with chocolate chips or chocolate shavings. You can even replace the cream cheese almond frosting with a chocolate frosting. No matter what you choose for flavoring I’m sure it will be delicious.
Recipe Tips
If the frosting is too runny, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a bit of milk. STORE any leftover frosting in the freezer in an airtight container for 3 months.
Homemade Cake: Sometimes I like to make a recipe the quickest, easiest, but still delicious, way possible. Enter the boxed cake mix. If you would like to use your favorite white cake mix from scratch, you can definitely do that. Once you have the batter mixed, follow the rest of the recipe to add the cherries and flavored Jell-O and, of course, the frosting.
Size of pan to use for this cake: For this recipe I used a 9×13 cake pan. But you can easily use other pan sizes. The directions for cook time should be on the cake mix box, but here are some basic guidelines in case you need them. Keep in mind different ovens cook a little differently so begin checking a few minutes before the suggested time. Use a toothpick to insert in the center of the cake. When it comes out clean, pull the cake out of the oven.
- 11×13 pan: bake at 350°F for 20-25 min
- Two 8” rounds: bake at 350°F for 30-35 min
- Two 9:rounds: bake at 350°F for 25-30 min
- Cupcakes: Bake at 350°F for 15-20 min
Storing Info
This cake can sit out on the counter for about a couple hours before covering the pan with plastic wrap and STORING it in the fridge.
FREEZE the cake for up to 4 months:
- Frosted: Flash freeze first by placing the whole cake or as individual slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place in the freezer for a few hours or until the outside has frozen.
- Unfrosted: Properly wrap the plain or frosted cake with plastic wrap. Then you can either wrap the cake again with aluminum foil or place the cake in an airtight freezer safe container.
For Other Fruity Desserts, check out:
- Mini Fruit Pizzas
- Paradise Parfait
- Fruit Tart
- Easy Berry Icebox Cake
- Brownies and Cream Fruit Trifle
Cherry Sheet Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 package white cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 oz cherry Jell-O
- 10-12 oz maraschino cherries drained
Almond Buttercream Frosting
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Begin by adding your cherries to a blender or food processor and blending.
- Mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water in a large bowl until well blended. Add JELL-O mix and pureed cherries. Mix well.
- Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Let cake cool.
- While cake is cooling make frosting by creaming together the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar, almond extract, and milk - blend well. Frost cake. ENJOY!
Is this the instant gelatin cherry jello?
Yes 🙂 Hope you like it!! Thanks!
So yummy! One of the best cakes I’ve ever made. I made them into cupcakes for a church event and everyone loved them!
Oh, thank you!! We love this recipe, too!! That’s a great option, to make them into cupcakes! I’m honestly not sure what happened with the cherry bars. I haven’t had that happen before. I’m sorry!
I also made the sheet cake with a chocolate cake mix and it was very good as well. I used extra cherries and it was very tasty. I made the cherry bars also and the bottom came out very soggy..what do u think went wrong?
Made the cherry sheet cake for our pizza bingo party at church. Could not find instant cherry jello
A employee googled it and said I could get it on ebay. Well not going that route so tried another
Store no luck. So I tried it with the regular cherry jello and baked it for the same amount of time
It turned out delicious and worked. So those of you who can not find instant jello just a note regular
Works.
Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing that!! I am so glad it worked and that you liked it!
If I use a round cake pan. Will this be the same recipe or will I have to alter it?
I haven’t made it in a round pan, but I’m guessing you would divide the batter into two, since those are a lot smaller. Usually the cooking time is a little longer, since it is smaller, but I wouldn’t know how long. It’s one of those, where you’d need to just keep an eye on it.
My frosting came out nothing like the picture. Your recipe is 2-3 tablespoons of milk? Frosting was runny. What’s the secret!? Thanks in advance!
Add more powdered sugar, if it’s too runny. If it’s too thick, then you would add more milk. Enjoy!
Love the different unique recipes Thk U
Thank you!! Hope you find some to try!
where can u get the cherry jello instant recipe calls for is it pudding are regular jello
It is jello & you should be able to find it in the baking aisle 🙂 Hope you try it!
I love your FOOD it looks so delicious i would really like to make this
Awe, thank you so much! I hope you so try this!!
There is mo such thing as instAnt chErry jellO
Looks good.Making it this weekend.My grandkids will love this recipe.we are sure going to Enjoy it.
I hope you did!!!
Can you use black cherry jello iN this or does it have to be regular cherry
You sure could 🙂
Hello! I made this for Fathers day tomorrow. How should i store it? Fridge or counter?
I like to keep this one in the fridge, because of the cool whip 🙂
I love cherry anything, and im making this cake but all i have is black cherry jello, will this work?
Yes, for sure 🙂 I’ve tried it with so many flavors! Enjoy!
Every year for mY husband’s birthday I make him a cherry cake. Every year they were just so-so. Tried this reCipe and EVERYONE just raved about how good it was. It was so flavorFul and moist. I made a two layer cake. I doubled the icing recipe, we love icing. It did dip a little in the center but i just filled it with icing to make it level. Lol
Perfect!! I am so glad you tried this & it was a hit! Thank you!
Do you have a picture of your 2 layer cake?
Can I use 1/2 cup of orange juice instead of water? I think I’m going to make this cake recipe for Christmas this year.
I was so hurt, don’t know why but my cake sunk in the middle!
I’m so sorry! Sometimes ovens are calibrated a little differently and the resulting temperature is slightly different and that can cause a cake to sink in the middle. I’m not sure if this is what happened in your case but I hope this recipe works out for you next time. Thanks so much for trying it!
Made this cake today. To me it was overly sweet. Next time I’ll leave out the cherries and add one tablespoon of the syrup to the frosting.
Let me know how it goes the second time around. I would love to hear!
I have a church picnic/potluck in a few days and decided to make this cake. I am going to decorate it for the July 4th celebrations which were just last week. Now, onto finding a Mexican layered dip for the same event. I think I will browse your recipes to see if I can find a good one to take along with the cake. Thanks for your recipes and input.
You’re welcome! I hope the cake is a hit and that you were able to find another recipe that might work for your dip. A few of my favorites are our 7 Layer Bean Dip, Cream Cheese Bean Dip and our Chicken Enchilada Dip, but we have even more Mexican dips on our site too. 🙂