Black Forest Gateau

A special occasion deserved a cake. This was a birthday cake I made for my uncle.

Serves 8-10

Black Forest Gateau

6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
185 g self-raising flour
80g cocoa powder
1 jar pitted morello cherries (or black)
1 T cornflour
3/4 cup Kirsch
600 ml thickened cream * see note*
200 g dark chocolate (to make caraque as decoration)

Preheat oven to 180C

Beat egg yolks with sugar until light and frothy. Add oil and water, beating constantly. Sift flour and drinking chocolate. Add to egg mixture and combine well. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into a greased 23cm springform tin. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Allow to cool in tin.

Drain cherries, reserve syrup. Pour Kirsch over cherries, cover and soak overnight or as long as possible. Drain again, reserving Kirsch. Combine reserved syrup and cornflour in a small sauce pan and cook until thickened. Remove from heat and add the cherries. Allow to cool before placing on cake.

Cut cake in half, brush with reserved Kirsch. Spread the cherry mixture on one cake layer. Place another layer on top and spread cover cake with whipped cream. Cover top and sides with chocolate caraque. Decorate with some reserved cherries and dust with sifted icing sugar just before serving.

Note: I replaced 300ml of cream with the "light" cream version. Light cream doesn't whip easily, so it will make the cream runnier.

Source: Chocolate cookbook