Getting cheery with cheerwine poke cake

     Out of all of the states that I lived in, North Carolina was the one that my family goes to more frequently. We recently went back last year in June for an important family matter. While we were there, we went to Pinehurst, Charlotte, and Mt. Gilead (aka a quick but, lovely drive-through). I will make a blog post talking about my travels in North Carolina later 🤣. However, the food staples in North Carolina (that aren't homemade) are Showmars, Cookout, and Cheerwine. Unlike the first two, Cheerwine is a singular item that you can buy from any grocery in NC. So, what is it you ask? Cheerwine is a cherry soda with a taste that is both a candy-like (similar to a Jolly Rancher) and natural cherry flavor. Honestly better than any cherry soda I tasted. Just like any lemon-lime soda, Cheerwine is used in EVERYTHING. Barbeque? Yup. Desserts? Of course. Alcoholic cocktails? Duh. Even chili?? Yes most definitely! Soooo, when I snagged two bottles from Alien Beef Jerky in Baker, I had an idea on what to do. When I got home, I chose between a bundt cake recipe or a poke cake. I chose the poke cake because it was more iconic and, it was cheaper and easier. You can easily get your ingredients from a 99 cent store or Walmart.

Making it  

 You mainly needed Cheerwine, white box cake (I used french vanilla), cherry jello, oil, eggs, maraschino cherries, and whipping cream. You followed the instruction of the box cake, except you replaced water with Cheerwine. This gave the batter an adorable pink color.

the good ol' american ingredients of a box cake (without the water ofc)

a cool pic of the Cheerwine fizzing up on top of the dry batter

Once it's in the oven, you make the poke concoction: boiling Cheerwine and adding cherry jello. Let that cool and wait when the cake is done. 

adding the cherry jello water to the boiling cheerwine

When you're cake is done, poke it and pour the mixture. Honestly, that all you do, if you choose not to put frosting on it. But, the poke cake without frosting is kinda ugly honestly. I forgot to take a photo of the process of it. 

poke juice being poured over

the cake with poke juice (?) after being in the fridge

For the frosting, you need the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and some of the liquid from maraschino cherries. Use the electric mixer until there are stiff peaks. To be honest, if you don't have an electric mixer, get you some cool whip and mix it with the maraschino cherry liquid. 

💖my cute cake 💖

I followed two things for this recipe: this youtube video and directly from their website. The slice looks very cute with Cheerwine jello swirls.

My Feelings on it. 

After some years of living in an area with many many Asian bakeries and having homemade cake for a lot of my life, I am not used to eating boxed cakes. Boxed cakes in America are very structured and firm. I am not sure if it's because of me using french vanilla cake (which has pudding already in it, but it is firm. So, that was something I wasn't used to. Apart from that, I like the plain cake part. However, the cake/poke concoction part was too favorable to me. I love jello AND cake. But, having the two textures together mashed together is something. I can't put into words the texture of that combo. I would enjoy it more if I omitted the gelatin and maybe make the Cheerwine into a syrup or cream? I would love to make this again but with my own cake batter. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the cake, I thoroughly enjoyed making it. It was fun doing all of the different aspects of the cake. Also, it smelled amazing. For this big cake, it took 11/2 glass bottles of Cheerwine to do this recipe. Luckily, I had enough to make a soda ice cream float, which was absolutely amazing. I would recommend it but, next time I am making a bundt cake.

my hella firm cake slice