BLACK FOREST GATEAU

A firm favourite for Christmas, this cake is so nostalgic and pairs beautifully with our stabilised whipped cream.

Ingredients

350g Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

300g Caster Sugar

200g Light Brown Sugar

120g Cocoa Powder

175g of previously boiled water still warm with 1 tsp of Coffee Granules

75g of the liquid from the cherries

100g Melted Butter

105g Vegetable Oil

4 Large Eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

60g Milk

1/2 tsp Cider Vinegar

100g of dark chocolate in a bar.

1 Batch of our Stabilised Whipped Cream (the recipe is in the Book)

400g jar of Cherries in Kirsch (you can use canned cherries in syrup if you prefer)

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/170CFan/375F/Gas5 and line the bottom and sides of 3 8 inch tins.

Melt the butter and add in the cocoa powder, sugars, oil, milk & vinegar, vanilla, eggs, coffee mix and liquid from the cherries. Mix this all together ensuring that the eggs are fully beaten.

Put the remaining ingredients into a bowl and give it a stir, then add in all of the wet ingredients, give this a good mix until all is incorporated.

Bake for 28 to 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to chill in the tins for 10 minutes then turn out and cool on a rack.

To decorate make the whipped cream recipe, brush each layer of the cake with the liquid from the cherries. Pipe the cream on each layer leaving a well in the centre and smother with a healthy amount of the cherries, then grate over lots of dark chocolate, repeat this stacking the cake.

Decorate the top with the cream and cherries and another drizzle of the cherry juice. Finally a really healthy grating of the dark chocolate.

Chill the cake in the fridge until you are ready to serve.