A forest of chocolate and cherry.

I have become known as a bit of a 'caker' around school. Earlier this year, I foolishly asked my year 12 class (which is thankfully very small) for a list of their favourite cakes so that I could make them something special for their birthdays (Note: I was a bit too ambitious and I don't think I'll be doing this again!!). I've had everything from chocolate mud to pavlova to cheesecake. But when I looked down the list and saw "Black Forest", I cringed. I've never eaten a Black Forest, so I don't really know what they're supposed to taste like (or even what was in it!). And not really being a big chocolate fan, it didn't seem all that appealing. To add to my apprehension about making this cake, almost every recipe I read used "chocolate cake mix" as the base ingredient... Something I'm not a big fan of unless absolutely necessary. Finally, I found a recipe where you make everything from scratch and get something that does a good job of resembling the chocolate and cherry assemblage of a Black Forest.

I didn't actually intend to blog about this because I didn't really think it was going to be that exciting. But when I realised that this is the easiest chocolate cake, and the final product actually looks pretty spectacular, I thought I should share.

Blackforest cake (serves 10-12)
185 mL milk
125 g butter
275 g dark brown sugar
50 g good-quality cocoa powder
150 g self raising flour
50 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 can morello cherries, drained, liquid reserved
1/2 cup caster sugar
300 mL thickened cream, whipped
Grated chocolate, for decoration

1. Grease and line your tin/s (either 1 x 22-23cm or 2 x 20cm pans - springforms work best). Preheat oven to 160C (fan-forced).
2. In the microwave, melt together your butter and milk (about 2 minutes). Pour into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the brown sugar and cocoa powder and mix with a whisk until dissolved.
4. Add the flours and bicarb soda and mix with the whisk until combined.
5. Pour mixture into prepared tin/s. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.
6.To make cherry sugar syrup: Dissolve caster sugar in 1/2 cup water over low heat. Add the liquid from the cherry can and increase to medium heat. Gently boil for 20 minutes, or until liquid has reduced by half and thickened slightly.
7. To assemble: Slice each cake in half (or one cake into 3). Place one base on a cake plate and top with cherry syrup, whipped cream and some halved cherries. Top with next layer and repeat with remaining layers. On the top layer, top with remaining cherry syrup (carefully as it doesn't seep into the top layers easily), remaining cream and whole cherries. Grate chocolate over top layer.

Due to this being for a school affair, I had to emit the kirsch (cherry liquor) but that's why I made the cherry syrup. If you're in need of a little booze hit, just substitute this in your recipe for the syrup.

This was a big hit with the class, both in terms of presentation and taste. So next time you're in need of the wow factor, chuck this super easy cake in the oven and wow away!

Enjoy!

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