Ingredients
Cake:
- 360g plain flour, sifted
- 40g cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2g salt
- 1 tsp vanila extract
- 450g castor sugar
- 2 eggs, large
- 340g sour cream
- 100g butter, unsalted
- 250ml water, boiling
Cherry filling:
- 2 jars cherries in syrup, strained
- 125ml brandy
- 130g castor sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
Mascarpone cream:
- 500g mascarpone cream
- 8 tbsp icing sugar
- 200ml heavy cream
Chocolate ganache:
- 100g dark chocolate
- 125ml heavy cream
Garnish:
- 500g dark chocolate
- 1 punnet raspberries
- 1 punnet cherries
- 50g icing sugar
Preparation method
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 C and grease 2 x 24cm cake tins
- In a large bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together
- Add butter and sugar in another bowl and cream until light and fluffy
- Add each egg, one at a time, and mix until fully incorporated
- Add vanilla extract, sour cream and boiling water and beat until fully incorporated
- Fold dry ingredients into batter
- Divide the batter between the two greased tins and bake for 25-30 minutes
- Remove tins from oven and place on cooling rack for 10 minutes
- Turn cakes out of tins onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely
Cherry filling:
- Bring cherries, lemon zest, castor sugar and brandy to the boil
- Simmer for 10 minutes
- Ensure that you continue stirring until the sugar has dissolved
- Set aside and allow to cool
Mascarpone cream:
- Cream the mascarpone and icing sugar together until smooth
- Add cream and whip together until light and fluffy
Chocolate ganache:
- Add dark chocolate to a bowl
- Place cream into a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer
- Tip cream over the chocolate and stir until melted and combined
- If ganache is too runny, place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes
Assembly:
- Carefully cut each cake horizontally into two layers
- Place one layer of cake on board
- Spread 1/3 mascarpone cream and 1/3 of the cherry jam
- Repeat this process until cake is completely filled leaving the top of the cake plain
- Pour half of chocolate ganache over the top of the cake
- Decorate accordingly
Garnish:
Truffles:
- Use the remaining chocolate ganache to roll varying size truffle balls
- Reserve in fridge till needed.
Chocolate house:
- Melt chocolate and pour into moulds.
- Allow to cool and, once hard, remove from moulds
- Use remaining melted chocolate to glue house together
Trees:
- Melt chocolate, then place into a piping bag with 3mm nozzle
- Pipe varying shapes and sizes of trees on greaseproof paper and allow to set
- Place house, truffles and tress, together with fruit on the top layer of cake
- Sprinkle with icing sugar