Healthy cherry pie cake is made in one bowl, lightly sweet, and topped with a super simple homemade cherry pie filling.
I hope you’ve continued to read after you saw “homemade cherry pie filling”. Because honestly, this is probably the easiest cake you will ever make. It’s probably just as easy as dumping a cake mix in a bowl and mixing everything together.
Since I’m sticking with this theme of upgrading traditional desserts to healthier alternatives, this one was called “One Dish Cobbler Cake”. It required very few ingredients, and was so simple to make, I knew I had the willpower to make homemade cherry pie filling.
How to make homemade cherry pie filling for healthy cherry pie cake
Okay, if you’ve made it this far, you’re clearly interested in hearing exactly how this cherry pie filling can be so easy….and healthy.
All you need are some frozen pitted sweet cherries, pure maple syrup and corn starch. Cooking the cherries and syrup on the stove top is going to burst open those cherries and release their sweet juices.
Once they’ve cooked, just remove from the heat and sprinkle in the corn starch. It’s a perfect thickener to bind all of those cherry juices together and BOOM! cherry pie filling is done.
Healthified cherry pie cake base
While your cherries are cooking, you can whip up the base of the cake. The original recipe called for just five simple ingredients. Including one cup of sugar and one cup of flour.
I wanted to eliminate the sugar all together. So I looked to my trusty pure maple syrup and mixed it together with white whole wheat flour.
Of course I also used Silk Cashew Milk in place of regular dairy milk and stirred it all together with a little baking powder and salt.
Seriously, the cake base is that simple.
All that’s left is to top the cake base with the homemade cherry pie filling and you’re ready to bake.
Healthy cherry pie cake
This cake is surprisingly moist for not having any eggs or butter. Topped with that healthy cherry pie filling, it’s the perfect dessert to take to Thanksgiving.
I also found it to be an amazing breakfast cake crumbled over some yogurt for a little switch from my traditional granola.
It’s lightly sweet, moist and makes you think of Fall and Thanksgiving. Give this 10 minute cake a try for your upcoming holidays!
Looking for more super simple desserts? Check these out:
Copycat Cookie Dough Lara Bars
Healthy cherry pie cake is a one bowl cake that's moist and sweet. This vegan cake is super easy to make and made with no refined sugar. Perfect for a quick and easy Thanksgiving dessert.
- 3 cups frozen pitted sweet cherries
- 3 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp. corn starch
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup Silk unsweetened vanilla cashew milk
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Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9" x 9" pan with baking spray.
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In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, add the cherries and pure maple and bring to a boil.
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Lightly smash the cherries with a fork or spatula to break them open and release more juice.
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Remove from the heat and sprinkle in the corn starch.* Stir until thickened.
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Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together all of the cake ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan.
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Top the cake mixture with the cherry pie filling, spreading in an even layer.
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Bake for 30-32 minutes, until cake starts to pull away from the edges of the pan.
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Let cool and slice into 9 bars.
*Note: sprinkling in the corn starch will make sure that it doesn't clump up the pie filling.
