Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1ml salt
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 1/4 cups hot brewed coffee
- 1/4 cup Kirsch liqueur
Cherry filling jam:
- 3 cups fresh cherries, pitted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 lemon, juice of
- 1 tin pitted black cherries, drained (save the juice)
Cream:
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 4 tbsp icing sugar
Chocolate ganache:
- 200g dark chocolate
- 3/4 cup cream
Assembly:
- 100g dark chocolate, shaved with a vegetable peeler
- 1 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting
- 1 small bunch fresh cherries, for topping
Preparation method
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 C, butter and line 2 x 20cm cake tins with grease proof paper
- Sift all the dry ingredients and set aside
- Beat yolks, vanilla essence and oil
- Add to the dry ingredients, then add the hot coffee, mix well
- Whip egg whites until stiff, fold into the mixture
- Pour batter into pans, bake for 25-30 minutes
- Cool on wire rack before removing from the pans and cool completely
- Once cooled, slice each cake in half and drizzle each layer with a combination of Kirsch liqueur and cherry juice (If you don’t like Kirsch liqueur, just use the cherry juice reserved from the canned cherries)
Cherry filling jam:
- Bring cherries and sugar to the boil, use a fork or potato masher to mash fruit as it cooks
- When liquid begins to thicken, add lemon juice and balsamic vinegar
- Cook for 3-5min, until slightly shiny
- Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate
- Mix tinned cherries with cherry jam, thin with a bit of the cherry juice if required
Cream:
- Whip heavy cream with icing sugar until soft peaks
Chocolate ganache:
- Heat the cream and add chocolate to make a sauce
Assembly:
- Spread the top layer of cake with cream, fresh cherries and chocolate shavings
- Drizzle with chocolate ganache, making sure it drips to the sides (this makes the cakes irresistible)
- Dust with icing sugar