Slow Cooker Black Forest Cake
This recipe is amazing. It seems too good to be true, with only four ingredients and almost no preparation involved. I was worried about how this would turn out, but it was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. This can be altered to your liking by using different pie fillings and different cake mixes.
This recipe is amazing. It seems too good to be true, with only four ingredients and almost no preparation involved. I was worried about how this would turn out, but it was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. This can be altered to your liking by using different pie fillings and different cake mixes.
- Carbohydrate 0.00681000000867725 g
- Cholesterol 24.4025000310935 mg
- Fat 9.20598501173019 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0.0964750001229277 g
- Saturated Fat 5.83026800742888 g
- Serving Size 1 1 serving (11g)
- Sodium 65.3760000833016 mg
- Sugar 0.00681000000867725 g
- Trans Fat 0.644453000821157 g
- Calories 81 calories
Step-by-step
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and mix with reserved juice from the can of pineapple. Set the mixture aside.
- Spread the crushed pineapple in a layer on the bottom of a slow cooker. Spoon the cherry pie filling in an even layer on top of the pineapple, and empty the dry cake mix into the slow cooker on top of the cherry filling. Stir the butter and pineapple juice mixture, and pour it over the dry cake mix.
- Set the slow cooker to Low, and cook for 3 hours. Spoon the dessert into bowls, and let cool about 5 minutes to cool the hot pie filling before eating.
Scaling and Adjusting Proportions
Swapping cherry pie filling for blackberry or raspberry preserves alters the fundamental moisture balance of this dessert. Fruit preserves carry higher sugar concentrations and less liquid than canned pie fillings. Compensate for this density shift by adding two tablespoons of water directly into the fruit layer before layering the dry cake mix on top. When reducing this recipe by half to fit a smaller 2-quart slow cooker, decrease the total cooking time from three hours down to two hours. Monitor the edges closely for deep browning. Standard commercial cake mixes weigh roughly 18 ounces, but smaller box sizes require proportional scaling of the butter and pineapple juice liquid to prevent a dry crumb structure.
Fresh Versus Preserved Components
Using fresh pitted sweet cherries instead of canned pie filling removes added cornstarch thickeners from the equation. Fresh fruit releases natural juices during the three-hour thermal cycle on Low. This produces a thinner, more tart sauce beneath the cake crust. Canned crushed pineapple provides a consistent moisture level that fresh pineapple cannot match without prior cooking. Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, an active enzyme that breaks down starches and can alter the texture of the surrounding batter if not neutralized by heat beforehand. Retain the drained pineapple juice faithfully when substituting fresh fruit components to maintain the necessary liquid ratio for hydration.
