Black Forest Cake Recipe -

Preheat oven at 180C (Conventional oven), Line 3 round 20cm (8 inches) pans grease with oil spray or butter and line with baking paper
Sift cocoa powder and flour into a medium-size bowl and leave aside
In a cake mixer with the whisk attachment whisk eggs then slowly add sugar little by little and beat on high speed for 6-7 minutes until pale in colour and double in size
Once doubled in size add vanilla whisk for further 10 seconds.
Do not skip this steps, there is no leavening agent ( baking powder or baking soda in this cake, the whipped eggs are what is going to give volume to the cake)
Fold in the egg mixture to the flour mixture by HAND try not to deflate the eggs
Lastly, add in the melted butter
You might see the mixture deflate slightly, but that's ok, make sure the butter mixture is not hot
Pour the mixture equally into the 3 lined pans and bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until cooked and when a skewer inserted into the cake, it comes out clean
Take out the cake, cool for 10 minutes then turn the cake onto a wire rack to cool off completely

Drain the cherries and reserve the liquid
Make a slurry with cornflour and cherry syrup in a small bowl and leave aside
Into a small pan add 85ml of cherry liquid and sugar and heat on medium heat. once the sugar has dissolved and the mixture comes to a simmering point add in the slurry mixture. Whisk well and leave it on the fire for 1 -2 minutes until the syrup has thickened and has become syrupy
Take it out of the fire add the drained cherries and Kirche or 35ml of reserved cherry syrup. Mix all well, leave aside to cool down completely

Leave a flat tray in the fridge for about 1 hour before doing this step
Melt chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave until melted ( 30 seconds to 1 minute)
Spread the melted chocolate on the BACK of a flat tray using a palette knife (See video)
Leave it in the fridge for 3-5 minutes
Using a bench scraper, spatula, hold it at a 45-degree angle and scrape along the tray away from you to create curls.
If the chocolate is too hard, the curls may break (leave to soften slightly and try again). If the chocolate is too soft, the curls sag and won't roll (refrigerate more to harden)
If it is too hard to make logs then don't worry just scrape the chocolate to make shards
Once the logs or shards are made, keep them refrigerated until needed

Just prior to assembling the cake, in a mixing bowl add cream, icing sugar and vanilla and whisk until stiff peaks are formed (3-5 minutes). Refrigerate until needed.
Do not over whisk the cream, it will turn into butter if whisked for too long

Firstly add one layer of chocolate cake on the bottom
Then using a brush, soak the cake with the cherry syrup on the top
Then add a layer of whipped cream
Then add a layer of cherry filling
Repeat the process until the final layer of choclate cake is placed and soaked in cherry syrup.

Cover the whole cake with whipped cream
Pipe roses of whipped cream on the top edges of the cake using a large star nozzel
Place cherries on each rose piped
Add chocolate logs in the middle. crush the rest of the chocolate logs into small pieces using your hands and gently press them onto the sides of the cake
Leave it in the fridge for atleast 4 hours before serving so the flavours develop

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