Kitchen Anugraha: Black Forest Cake

Would you like to have a chocolate sandwich with whipped cream and cherries and some sweet alcoholic cherry syrup? If you answered yes, this cake is for you - and topped off with chocolate ganache if the cake and whipped cream and alcoholic cherries wasn't enough. It is my husband's birthday today and he made a special request for a black forest cake. As usual, I scoured the internet to pick the most interesting looking recipe that was also not too hard to follow. I think my cake turned out looking a bit lop sided - but it tastes just as I imagined it would. It is very moist and not sweet. The only thing I wouldn't do next time is the ganache. It was too chocolatey for me. And hard to cut, I must add!

Other than that, this recipe which I adapted from Sally's Baking Recipes is quite easy. Be warned, though: the list of ingredients is long.

Dry Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups plain flour - levelled cup

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 3/4 cups raw sugar - granulated

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons coffee powder

Wet Ingredients - all these ingredients need to be at room temperature:

1/2 cup oil ( I used olive oil)

2 large eggs

3/4 cup full fat sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1/2 cup hot water with a teaspoon of coffee dissolved in it ( Do this at the very end when needed)

Cherry Syrup

2 cans of dark cherry, drained and 3/4 cup of liquid reserved

Reserve about 20 full cherries and cut the remaining cherries into halves and set aside

2 tablespoons Cherry liquor

Boil the cherry syrup with the cherry liquor and reduce it to about 1/4 cup and set aside

Whipped Cream

2 cups full cream

1/4 cup pure icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the cream till soft peaks form and set aside

Chocolate Ganache

226 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1 cup cream

1 tablespoon corn syrup

Warm the three ingredients in a water bath, mix well and let it rest

Method:

Ideally, you need 3 x 9inch cake tins. I had two, so I cooked two cakes first and then cooked the third one after unmoulding the first. The tins need to be greased and lined with baking paper. The oven temperature should be around 175 degrees C.

Mix all the dry ingredients together with a spoon. Set aside.

Next, get the wet ingredients and put them together and give it a good mix with the electric beater.

Note: Do not add the hot coffee at this stage.

Start adding the dry ingredients to the wet mix and beat well, until you incorporate all of the dry ingredients.

Lastly, boil the kettle, get 1/2 a cup of hot water, dissolve your coffee in it and pour it into the mixture, blending well.

The cake mix is now ready. Divide it into three equal parts. Bake the cakes. Mine took about 20 to 22 minutes to cook. Unmould them and brush some of the cherry syrup on them. Set them down to cool completely.

Assemble the cake:

1. Make sure the tops of your cakes are flat by using a serrated knife and removing any bumps or bulges. My cakes were fairly flat - so I did not take the tops off.

2. Place one layer of cake, whipped cream and halved cherries. Add some of the cherry syrup.