With handmade whipped cream, rich chocolate ganache, and sweet spiking cherries, this scrumptiously moist Black Forest Cake stands head and shoulders above the competition.

Black Forest Cake: What is it?

This is my interpretation on Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, a typical German black forest cake. Four components make up today’s soaring beauty:

I always make chocolate layer cake.
Sweet, dark cherries
Creamy vanilla whipped topping
Dark chocolate ganache

Chocolate Cake

The tuxedo cake, which was created using my favorite chocolate cake as a base, is where the cake’s recipe is found. It features cake crumbs that are so gooey and wet that they adhere to your fork and melt in your mouth. Are you interested in the ingredients? Visit that recipe for more information. One thing I’ll point out since it bears repeating: this cake recipe requires hot liquid. Why? The cocoa powder is encouraged to bloom and dissolve by the heated liquid as opposed to remaining stationary. I advise coffee for the hot liquid because it will enhance the chocolate flavor. I guarantee that the cake won’t taste like coffee. Alternately, use hot water.

Cherries & Whipped Cream

Pick up a few cans of dark, delicious cherries that have been covered in thick syrup (the can is sold as such). As the cakes bake, lower the syrup on the stove. Are there any cherry liqueurs nearby? While the cakes are still warm, add a small amount and brush the mixture all over them. The moistest, most luscious chocolate cake you will ever taste is guaranteed by this cherry soaking syrup. Consider your favorite chocolate dessert to date. We may thank the cherry-soaking syrup for making this one better.

Those canned cherries, are those? Their magenta juices will bleed into the vanilla whipped cream as they are put directly into the cake. The cake is not weighed down by the pink-swirled, airy whipped cream. Even though this black forest cake is undoubtedly rich, it isn’t overly substantial. Considering how dense most chocolate cakes are, this is a breath of fresh air!

The majority of the vanilla whipped cream is put within the cake, but make sure to save some for the top and sides. This locks in the moisture in the cake. Have I mentioned how moist this cake is?

Ingredients

175g salted butter, plus extra for greasing
200g bar dark chocolate

300g plain flour
375g golden caster sugar
25g cocoa
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 medium eggs
200g buttermilk or natural yoghurt

To assemble

425g can pitted cherry , 2 tbsp juice reserved, rest drained
100g morello cherry jam
4 tbsp kirsch (or more juice from a can if you want it to be non-alcoholic)
500ml tub double cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 small punnet fresh cherries (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins. Boil the kettle. Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted.
Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free.
Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they’re on different shelves. To test they’re done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean.
Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes.
Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl,

pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable.
When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. Stack the cakes together. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes. Pile the fresh cherries in and around the cake and serve