BLACK FOREST CREAM CHEESE CAKE

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13X9 inch baking dish.
• 2. Pour cake mix into mixing bowl and mix according to directions on the box. Once mixed..pour batter into the baking pan and set aside.
• 3. CREAM CHEESE FILLING: Put softened cream cheese in a small mixing bowl, and add sugar, egg and vanilla and mix with hand mixer until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Use a large spoon and make 15 different dollops of cream cheese mixture over the entire cake batter. Try to place each one so that when cutting the cake you will get cheesecake in each piece (which is a total of 15 pieces, BUT,if you like larger pieces of cake, then you will only do 12 dollops). Now follow by taking about 3-4 cherries from the pie filling and place near the cheesecake mixture, do this 12-15 times on the cake batter. Bake in oven for a good 40 minutes...watch carefully as not to end up burning. My edges seemed dark when I took it out of the oven, but, once it cooled..it was fine. *Cool cake completely.
• 4. You have two options here...*if you want it so that all the cake has frosting..then invert cake after it has cooled in the pan for about 10 minutes, then allow to cool completely before frosting. If you want to serve cake from the baking dish..I always use a glass baking dish so you can see the cake...then cool cake in pan completely before frosting.
• 5. Frost cake with either Cool whip or Fresh Whipping Cream..then pour 1 can cherry pie filling over entire cake. (You will have some leftover from not using all in the batter.)
• 6. CUPCAKES: When making this into cupcakes...make cake as directed, put a small amount of batter in the bottom of the cupcake liner in the muffin tin, then take a small spoonful of cheesecake filling and put ontop of cake batter, now add two cherries with a tiny bit of glaze next, and then cover with more cake batter filling cupcake liner until about 2/3 full...not more than 3/4 full. Otherwise it will over flow on the pan and have a Mushroom top. Bake about 20 minutes..remove and cool completely, frost with cool whip or whipping cream...(use a decorator's tip to make a swirl if you would like..this is what I do), now take the pie filling and spoon out two cherries with some glaze and drizzle over whipping cream. (When making the cupcakes you will probably only need 1 can of pie filling..I get the pie filling that has EXTRA cherries in it.)
• 7. Keep cake or cupcakes refrigerated until ready to serve.
• 8. ALSO...take note of the picture above..I used a different technique when adding the cheesecake mixture onto the batter, I added the dollops and then used a knife and swirled the dollops in the batter....which is fine, but it ended up more flat than normal..in just leaving in dollops, and not swirling it will be in more of a clump of cheesecake per piece. Do it either way...each time I make this cake, I am doing something different...it is just the way my mind works..lol!