Ingredients
Chocolate sponge:
- 340g castor sugar
- 340g butter, unsalted
- 6 eggs
- 240g flour, self-raising, sifted
- 100g cocoa powder
Cherry filling:
- 2 tins black cherries, drained
- 2 tbsp Kirsch liqueur
Chocolate ganache:
- 200ml double cream
- 200g dark chocolate
Cream:
- 750ml double cream
- 250ml whipping cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
Assembly:
- 100g dark chocolate
- 150g white chocolate
- 24 fresh cherries, with stalks
- 150g dark chocolate, for spiral
Preparation method
Chocolate sponge:
- Preheat the oven to 170C
- Lightly butter 2 x 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins, dust with flour and line with greaseproof paper
- Whisk butter and sugar until light and fluffy
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and the cocoa powder
- Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins
- Smooth the surface with a knife
- Bake at 170C for 30 minutes until firm and springy or a skewer comes out clean
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack
- Once completely cooled, slice each cake horizontally into equally sized rounds
Cherry filling:
- Drain the cherries, reserving 200ml of the cherry syrup
- Add the Kirsch to the reserved syrup
- Spoon the cherry syrup over each disc and leave to soak in
Chocolate ganache:
- Heat the double cream to scalding point then add the chocolate pieces
- Remove from the heat and stir gently until the chocolate is melted and smooth
- Allow to cool in the refrigerator, to thicken slightly
Cream:
- Whip the creams together to combine, add the icing sugar then whip until soft peaks
- Divide the cream in half, setting aside one half for the top and one half for the sides
Assembly:
- Spread one of the cake discs with a quarter of cherry mix and cream
- Place second disc of sponge on top and spoon over cherry mix and cream
- Repeat process with third disc and then place fourth and final disc on top
- Thickly spread the sides with the cream.
- Spread cream over the top of cake, pipe cream to decorate the edge
- Pour ganache over top then decorate with cherries
- Decorate the cherries by melting white and plain chocolate in separate bowls
- Dip each cherry into dark chocolate and set on parchment paper, then pipe with white chocolate once set
- Pipe Dark chocolate spirals on greaseproof paper for decoration
- Place the spiral shapes on the sides of the cake to finish off