Holy Chocolate Cake!

I promised I would share!  Even if you're not a fan of cherries, I swear you can't taste them in the cake.  For that reason, I dumped an entire can of cherries on the top :)  

While the aesthetics of this cake leave something to be desired, trust me on the taste!  It was so good, so moist, not too sweet, but just right.  
  
Black Forest Cake
  
The cake...

-1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
-1 tsp. almond extract
-22 oz. can cherry pie filling
-2 well beaten eggs

Beat together the above ingredients for about one minute, and pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

*Since this was my attempt to bake a double layer cake, I baked the batter in two, 9" round pans for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean. 

The fudge frosting...

-1 cup sugar
-5 tbsp. butter
-1/3 cup milk
-6 oz. chocolate chips

Combine sugar, butter, and milk in saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until boiling.  Remove from heat immediately and stir in chocolate chips until the batter is smooth and slightly cooled (so it gets a little thicker).  Pour over partially cooled, but still warm, cake.

**Again, I think you could experiment with the frosting.  If you'd rather do a traditional white frosting, it'd be delicious with this cake.  I let my round cakes cool on cooling racks, used 1/3 of a can of white frosting to seal the two cakes together, dumped another can of cherries on the top, and drizzled about half the chocolate fudge over the top.  While delicious, it did get a little top heavy with all that weight :)