The Cherry Republic Fall Recipe Contest has come to a close. We received so many recipes over the last few weeks we thought we might have mistakenly offered the deed to the Glen Arbor property as top prize.
It was hard to choose one – should it be a dessert? Main course? The recipe with most products used? Most original? Since we couldn’t even decide on the parameters of our little contest, we just decided to give it to best overall recipe – which really means eeny meeny miney mo. Just kidding, but seriously, it was difficult. That said, we decided to give honorable mentions to a few of our more special entries.
Thank you to everyone who entered! We had such a great response to this contest that we will be sure to do it again. So don’t worry if your recipe didn’t win. You’ll get another chance for fame and bragging rights soon!
Click the recipe name to find the recipes and make these yummy delicacies for yourself. Enjoy!
Overall Winner:
Chocolate Cherry Berries Wine Cake – Hidemi W.
Hidemi’s Chocolate Cherry Berries Wine Cake took top spot mostly because we judges had just eaten lunch and were in the mood for a decadent dessert. Also, we can’t overstate how much we love a good cake with cherries. And chocolate. And wine. To boot, this recipe can be altered to have as much, or as little (as if!) cherry as you’d like. Congratulations Hidemi!
Ingredients:
1 cup Milk Chocolate Cherry Berries
1/2 cup Butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs, beaten
1 and 1/4 cups Unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
2 teaspoons Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/3 cup Red Wine (or Cherry Republic’s Cherry Red wine)
Vanilla Frosting (or Cherry Republic’s Cherry Fudge Sauce)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.Line 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. Chop chocolate cherry berries coarsely.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and add granulated sugar. Whisk in eggs.
4. Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and cocoa powder. Mix to blend. Stir in red wine and chocolate cherry berries. Put the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.
5. Take the pan out of the oven and let the cake cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 10-15 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan. Remove the paper, spread vanilla frosting on top and let stand until the frosting set. Then slice the cake and serve.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
Chicken Alfredo w/ Cherries & Toasted Pecans –
White Cherry Chicken Chili – Kara P.
Cherry Fudge Pumpkin Cherry Cake Pops – Dave W.
Cherry Lemonade Cupcakes w/ Lemon Chiffon Frosting – Rachel R.
Grandma’s Simply Cherrific Tart Cherry Coffee Cake – Cheryl M.
Most Cherry Republic Products Used:
Cherry Chutney Cheese Spread – Kaye K.
Thank you to everyone who participated!!
