Monday munchies: Black forest gâteau

A bit late with the post this week I'm afraid - primarily because I spent last night making this bad boy for my colleague's birthday today.  A somewhat unhealthier recipe today than last week but a little bit of what you fancy does you good, right? :)  This recipe is really easy.  And who wouldn't want to eat something looking this good if it's easy to make too?

Black forest gâteau
Serves 8-10

175g unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing tins)
200g dark chocolate
300g plain flour
375g golden caster sugar
25g cocoa
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
200g buttermilk
350g frozen cherries
100g cherry jam
500ml double cream
3 tbsp icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/160 degrees fan.  Add the caster sugar, flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda to a large bowl and mix together.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and buttermilk.  In a pan, gently melt the butter and 75g of the dark chocolate, stirring as the ingredients melt.

 

Add both the egg and buttermilk mixture and the melted chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients.  Add 100ml boiling water.

Whisk the ingredients together.  Distribute the mixture evenly between three 8" sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, switching the tins around after 20 minutes if they are on different shelves.

While the cakes cool, heat 200ml of the cream on the hob.  Break the remaining chocolate into a bowl and pour over the hot cream.

Stir the chocolate until it has melted.  Set aside and allow to cool until the mixture has thickened.

If the cherries have not defrosted fully, defrost in the microwave for 2 minutes on 20% power, stirring halfway through.  Mix the cherries and cherry jam together.

Whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar and layer on the cakes with the cherry mixture.

Pour the chocolate sauce on the top and place a few cherries to decorate.

Try to resist eating any within five minutes of finishing it!

Enjoy,




This recipe was based on a recipe on the BBC Good Food website and adapted slightly by me