Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Okay, I challenge anyone (who has a sweet tooth) to be able to look at the scrumptious photo of these cookies in the book and not run to your kitchen and make them immediately. When I saw them, I didn't happen to have any maraschino cherries on hand and had to wait until the weekly shopping was done.

My cookies, turned out alot darker than those pictured in the book and they had a distinctly cake-like texture. The flavour is very rich and chocolatey. The melted chocolate combined with cherry syrup drizzled on top added another hit of dark chocolate. I wonder if the texture was more cake like because I was forced to use half sugar and half liquid sweetener but they were still very good, and so cute with the half cherries nestled on top.