Sunday 17th November 2019
November is always birthday month in my family with all 3 of my siblings and my mum’s birthdays being this month! November is also the month where I am the poorest because of the slew of birthdays and is generally why people get food-related gifts for Christmas from me.
This weekend has been my mum’s birthday weekend and let me tell you, it was a very food heavy weekend. Between lasagne, brunch, deep fried brie, toad in the hole and a raclette, I think I have consumed enough food to last me a week. Oh, and enough cheese to last me the rest of the month. Although the cheese was absolutely amazing and makes me drool just thinking about it!
No birthday weekend is complete without cake. To be honest, no celebration is complete without cake and you can turn absolutely anything into a celebration by making cake.
It’s a very good way to live life.
Cake makes absolutely everything better.
Black forest cake is one of my mum’s favourite types of cake and it is such a fun cake to make. Last year I made black forest cupcakes, and this year I decided to go a bit more all out! Hence the triple layered cake filled with plenty of cream and a homemade cherry pie filling. Which also goes very well on pancakes in case you were wondering.
This cake is amazing. It went down incredibly well with all of the family- including the fussy sibling who doesn’t like chocolate cake or cherries or you know, anything. The chocolate cake is quite a rich chocolate cake as there is a hefty amount of cocoa powder in it but it is moist from the cherry syrup that is brushed over the cake and it is just absolutely delicious.
The cake batter is quite a runny mixture however it cooks really well, and also very quickly. These cakes took 15 minutes in the oven which is pretty fast for layered cakes.
A tip for baking cakes more evenly is to make a dip in the centre of the cake so that when the cake rises, it rises more evenly, resulting in a flatter topped cake, although with my sister around, any spare cut aways never stay around for very long anyway.
This cake lasts for a couple of days and does have to be stored in the fridge due to the cream.
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
200g Self-Raising Flour
80g Cocoa Flour
225g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
200ml Milk
175g Melted Butter
1tsp Vanilla Extract
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
For the Cherry filling:
300g Cherries
50ml Water
1tsp Vanilla Extract
20g Caster Sugar
For the Cream:
600ml Double Cream
1tsp Vanilla Extract
Chocolate to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C and line 3 9 inch cake tins with parchment paper
- In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, melted butter and the vanilla extract until fully incorporated, adding in the eggs 1 at a time, beating them in completely before adding the next and then the milk, until the mixture is pale in colour and voluminous.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in to the bowl and then fold in the flour until everything is incorporated.
- Divide the cake batter between the 3 cake tins, ensuring the cake batter is spread evenly in the pan (Tip: if you create a dip in the centre of the tin in the batter, it is much more likely to rise evenly) and then bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
- Whilst the cakes are baking, to make the cherry filling, put the cherries, water, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and put it over a medium heat, cooking the cherries so that they breakdown a little. Once the cherries have softened and the syrup is bubbling in the pan, take the cherries off the heat and allow them to cool down completely.
- Once the cakes are out the oven brush the cakes with some of the cherry syrup to infuse some of the flavour and to help the cakes to stay moist.
- Once the cakes are completely cool, whisk the cream and vanilla together until it forms soft peaks. Construct the cake by topping one of the cakes with 1/3 of the cream followed by 1/3 of the cherries and some of the syrup before placing the second cake layer on top and repeating this process until the cake is constructed.
- Grate some milk chocolate over the top of the cake to complete
