Drunken Cherry Cheesecake is a delightful chocolate whipped dessert with marinated vanilla vodka cherries.
Eat one. Cut one. Eat one. Cut one.
I can't even give you the exact measurements to this recipe as these cherries were so sweet and delicious that there might have been a slight escape during the inventory management process.
I have the perfect dessert recipe for Father's Day and you don't even have to turn on the oven. I marinated these super sweet cherries in a tantalizing bath of vanilla flavored vodka. I plated my drunken cherries in a vodka glass tucked between layers of my super easy cocoa cheesecake and topped them off with a bit of whipped topping and a cherry garnish.
This is one dish that makes you lick the spoon during the assembly process for quality assurances processes, of course! Drunken Cherry cheesecake is gluten free, egg free and can be made in advance of your gathering in less than 30 minutes. I also have a kid friendly version for you too.
Welcome to cherry season! I adore the cherry season as it reminds me of my home, Michigan. Every year our family and close friends would head up to Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville around the fourth of July weekend. We would enjoy eating cherries, enjoy the Cherry festival in Traverse City, have cherry spitting pit contests, and of course eat cherry pies. The harvesting of cherries in Michigan is a big deal. Michigan is the nation’s third-largest producer of sweet cherries, trailing California and Oregon. Michigan produces about 18,000 tons of sweet cherries a year and I think I just ate half of them while preparing this dish!!!
There are both sweet and sour cherries. I used sweet cherries for my drunken cherry cheescake. Sweet cherries are grown in the western northern part of Michigan.
We celebrated Fathers Day a little early as this is the one the only time that our whole family would be together in this month of June. We enjoyed a tender steak with Bam's special zip sauce, Healthy Alternative Zip Sauce, grilled portabello mushrooms and aparagus, spring salad and grilled potatoes for the growing teenagers.
Then, I brought out the drunken cherry cheesecake (of course I made virgin version for my teenage boys) and set it on the dinner table. I was in the kitchen making a pot of fresh tea and within nanoseconds the dessert was inhaled. There were no loud sounds or words of praise coming from the kitchen table. There was just the delicate sounds of the spoon tapping the glass as they scouped out every last bit of the chocolately goodness. I walked in and found my youngest licking the inside of the dessert glass and then he asked, "Is there any more left?" There was no rating system performed or words or gratitude but their empty bowls spoke louder than words.
Happy Fathers Day to all my favorite men out there!!!
More delicious Dessert Recipe Ideas
Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding
Grilled Nectarine with Coconut Cream
Icebox Lavendar Lemon Angel Food Cake
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Drunken Cherry Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup sweet cherries cut in half and pit removed (reserve some whole for garnishing)
- ½ cup vanilla Vodka (can leave out to make kid friendly) or maybe you would like to use amaretto, frangelica, drambui, etc.
- ½ sugar or sugar alternative I used about 12 packets of splenda or any sugar alternative you desire)
- 250 ml whipping cream
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Wash, cut in half and remove the pit from cherry. If you have one of those fancy cherry pitter, better yet!
- Marinade vanilla vodka with your cherries. (If doing a kid friendly version leave out the vodka and add a dash of vanilla and sugar if your cherries are not sweet, but mine were delightful) Set aside.
- In a bowl whip together the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar alternatives. In a separate bowl, whip your cream until nice firm peaks. (set aside about ½ cup of whipped topping for garnish). Whip together both your cream cheese mixture and whipping cream and add cocoa. Taste and adjust for sweetness as desired.
- Place your cream cheese mixture in a piping bag. (I used a large ziplock baggie and cut the end of it as I still do not have all the fancy baking equipment and that works fine too)
- In 4 martini glasses or pretty glass cups, first place in a layer of marinated cherries then follow by a piping of chocolate cheesecake then followed by another layer of cherries and then more chocolate cheesecake and another layer of cherries until you reach the top of the glass.
- Garnish with a dollop of whipped topping, cherries and chocolate shavings if you desire.
jothetartqueen says
i adore cherries! good on you for making your very own drunken cherries!! love how you serve these with a chocolate cheesecake!
chocolate and cherries just sing out to me! would happily eat these!
Raymund says
Gosh! I want them for dessert
Suzanne says
Looks fabulous, a wonderful dessert without cooking, yay!
Charles says
This looks absolutely gorgeous Bam! I have a real cherry addiction... just bought some today! They never last long... I can just eat huge piles of them in one go so I know just what you mean when you say "some might have escaped", lol 😀
ashley says
This is gorgeous!! I have a husband who is a HUGE fan of cherries!
Robyn says
That is so beautiful, Bam! I have a family of cherry lovers and we'll all be gathered together for Father's Day so I definitely will be making this for dessert. Perfect combination of flavours. That final photo made me want to lick the screen - it's jumping right out at me! Yum!
Amy Tong says
Oh...these Drunken Cherry Cheesecake looks so good. What a perfect treat for Father's Day. haha....I think I would lost count/measurement with these cherries for the same reason. The deep dark red tells me they are super sweet and they definitely look juice. What a decadent treat you have here. And please, keep mine as "drunken" as possible! 😛 I love boozy desserts.
Karen says
I can't begin to tell you how good these look. If no one was looking, I might be tempted to lick it clean too. 🙂
dedy oktavianus pardede says
This western style cheese cake sounds preety familiar for asian descent,
drungken means alcoholic..hehehe
i'm affraid i would scooped it all over before served
bitsandbreadcrumbs says
I love, love, love this, BAM! So easy and elegant, and I think the idea of subbing amaretto would be divine. I may have to make this over the weekend for the "cat father" in our house. 🙂 He loves fresh cherries.
bitsandbreadcrumbs says
This is almost viral on Pinterest! I repinned it and it just keeps going and going and going.... 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Wow, thank you Betsy! That is amazing, will have to check it out. Wishing you a super weekend! Take care, BAM
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
I'm so happy that we are in cherry season!! I remember cherries are so expensive in Japan, but now here pretty much all the fruits are cheap compared to Japan, and especially enjoy eating cherries! Your drunken (!!!) cherry cheesecake sounds yummy!
yummychunklet says
Drunken? Yes, please!
Purely.. Kay says
I'd be happy to get drunk eating this lol. This looks so darn divine. I must try and I hope it comes out just as amazing as yours 🙂
fleurdeselsf says
This looks absolutely delicious! I love that cherries are in season - what a great way to use them!
cquek says
Wish I could try one.