Chocolate Cherry Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter; softened
• ½ cup oil
• 5 eggs
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1¼ cups milk
• ½-3/4 cup pitted cherries; halved
• Chocolate Glaze
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup pitted cherries
• 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

1. Cream butter, oil, and sugar with a high speed mixer, until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
3. Sift dry ingredients (confession: I usually skip the whole sifting part. :) ) and add to egg mixture at low speed. (Trust me on the low speed!) Gradually add milk, then vanilla. Fold in cherries.
4. Pour into a lightly greased bundt pan (or use silicone). Bake at 350° for 90 minutes. Remove from pan once cooled and glaze, if desired.
5. To Prepare Chocolate Glaze::
6. In a saucepan melt the chocolate chips and milk.
7. Using an immersion blender, chop up the cherries. You want them to liquify just a bit, but you also want to leave some cherry chunks.
8. Add the cherries into the melted chocolate and warm for about 5 minutes.
9. Drizzle on top of your Chocolate Cherry Cake--and serve.