Black Forest Gateau
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves: 24 after a big Christmas meal
For cake
- 3.5 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp bicarb of soda
- 1 cup cocoa
- 2.5 cups caster sugar
- 350g/12.4ozs. butter, softened
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 150ml/5ozs. sour cream
- 1 cup boiling water
- 350g/12.4ozs chocolate chips
For cherry syrup
- 1 cup cherry juice (from the jarred cherries)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup kirsch plus 1-2 tablespoons extra
To Fill
- 680g/24ozs. jar sour cherries, pitted (reserve liquid for syrup)
- 800ml/28flozs. cream
- 2 tablespoons gelatine powder
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 2 cups fresh cherries
Chocolate cherry syrup
- 2/3 cup of the reduced cherry syrup (see above)
- 125g/4ozs. milk chocolate
To make 1 cup of cake flour, measure 1 cup of plain all purpose flour and replace 2 tablespoons with cornflour or fine cornstarch.
Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Grease and line 3x 20cm/8 inch round tins. Whisk the flour, bicarb, cocoa and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream to a food processor and process until well incorporated and then pour into the bowl with the flour mixture and mix with the water and chocolate chips until just combined.
Step 2 - Divide among the three tins (I used a scale because I wanted it to be even as the layers will show). Bake for 1 hour or until the centre springs back when pressed. Cool completely and trim the top. I find these cakes easiest to work with if the layers are frozen as it is a moist cake so I wrap these individually and freeze them until needed.
Step 3 - Make the syrup. Boil the cherry juice, sugar and 1/4 cup of kirsch together until reduced by a quarter or so or becomes like a glossy syrup. I also add a tablespoon or two of kirsch for an alcoholic hit at the end. Reserve around 2/3 cup of this to make the chocolate cherry syrup below (do it while the syrup is hot). You'll use the other 1/3 cup cherry syrup to brush on the cake - cool this.
Step 4 - Make the chocolate cherry syrup. Place the milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Add the quantity of hot cherry syrup to the chocolate to melt the chocolate and stir to melt. This will be your chocolate pouring syrup. If you syrup sets firm in the fridge you can gently heat it in the microwave so that it becomes liquid again.
Step 5 - Make the cream (do this when you are ready to put the cake together). Sprinkle gelatine over 1/2 cup of the cream and microwave and stir until smooth. Allow to cool until lukewarm and then whip with the rest of the cream, sugar and vanilla until of a pipeable consistency.
Step 6 - When ready to put the cake together, place one cake layer on a serving place. Brush the cake with the cooled cherry syrup. Then pipe the whipped cream on top. Divide the jarred cherries in half and place half of the cherries on top of the whipped cream and then drizzle with the chocolate cherry syrup. Repeat again with the second layer. Then pipe cream on the third and top layer and top that with fresh cherries and chocolate cherry syrup. To cut, serve each slice as a single layer slice and it can feed up to 24 after a big Christmas meal.