Black Forest gateau

I watched James Martin bake this cake on his programme and knew I ‘needed’ to bake this cake. Chocolate sponge, black cherries, kirsch and whipped cream and last but not least, the peppermint shards of chocolate, I was sold lock stock and barrel.

For the shards, I lined a swiss roll tin with lots of cling film to temper the peppermint chocolate. I spread the mixture over in an even layer and left it to set in a cool place. The easy part was breaking off those wonderful shards to later place around the cake.

The rest of the cake was quite straightforward to complete following the recipe instructions. The chocolate sponge uses the creaming method and when cooled I cut through with a segregated knife to make two halves.

The black cherries are drained and the juice warmed and thickened a little before use. I then whipped the cream and sandwich the sponges together with a little of the thickened cherries and cream. I slightly altered the recipe by adding whipped cream and the of rest of the thickened cherries on top of the cake with a few toasted almonds – a triple dare of goodness (!) Mmmm

I must say this cake went down a storm with my family and what a good twist on such a retro cake. How can such a delicious cake be out of fashion, over kill of a good thing in the 70’s maybe?

Here is the recipe