Quick & easy cherry-bottom chocolate cake

Apparently I'm into chocolate-and-fruit combinations (really, I'm into chocolate-and-anything combinations - I am such a big chocoholic it's ridiculous). This week was my sister-in-law's birthday and I was commissioned with making the birthday cake. I listed some of the things I could do and she thought something with cherries sounded good. So I decided to make a cherry sauce, top it with cake batter, bake it, and frost it - and it turned out as good as it sounds. Here is how I did it in ridiculously easy fashion:

Cherry-bottom chocolate cake

1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate cake mix or other allergen-free chocolate cake mix (some varieties of Duncan Hines are milk-, egg-, and peanut/tree-nut-free)

1 can safe premade icing (I used Pillsbury reduced sugar chocolate fudge - lots of Pillsbury icings are safe) or 1 box Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate frosting prepared as directed

1 16-oz bag frozen, pitted cherries

1 Tbsp arrowroot powder

3 Tbsp grenadine, pomogranite juice, or water

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp water

Prepare cake mix as directed on the box (mine called for 1/2 C oil and 1 C cold water). Set aside. Make cherry sauce by combining frozen cherries, grenadine, arrowroot powder, sugar, and water in medium saucepan. Cook and stir on medium/low heat until thick sauce forms.

Spray 9x9 pan with nonstick spray. Pour cherry sauce on bottom. Pour cake batter on top and spread batter to completely (or as close as possible) cover the cherry sauce. Bake at 350 for ~25 minutes or until tester for the cake comes out clean.

When cake is cooled, spread chocolate icing on top and enjoy.

Note: You can also use this cherry sauce instead of the strawberry sauce for the brownie mini-cakes described in the previous post. You can also add safe chocolate chips to the cake batter if your mix doesn't have them already (my Cherrybrook mix did have them). This cake is messy but oh so good!