Photography: John Paul Urizar. Styling: Olivia Blackmore.
This divine chocolate cherry cake transforms the classic Black Forest combination into an impressive celebration centrepiece.
It’s a showstopping creation with layers of moist chocolate cake, tangy cherry filling and silky white ganache. Topped with chocolate frosting, chocolate caramel sauce and fresh cherries, it’s for those special occasions when only the most spectacular cake will do.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease two 22cm round cake pans; line bases and sides with baking paper.
Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flours and cocoa into a bowl. Add flour mixture to egg mixture in two batches, alternating with combined sour cream and milk; beat until just combined. Divide mixture equally between pans; smooth the surface.
Bake cakes for 55 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave cakes in pans for 15 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make white ganache: Melt chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second bursts until smooth. Whisk in sour cream. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until beginning to firm. Using a balloon whisk, whisk for 30 seconds or until soft peaks form (don’t over whisk or mixture will split). Stand at room temperature until required.
Make cherry filling: Place ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until mixture is jammy. Cool to room temperature.
Make chocolate frosting: Place cream in a small saucepan; bring to the boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stand for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Stir in sour cream until just combined.
To assemble chocolate cherry cake, using a serrated knife, level tops of cakes then split each cake into two equal layers. Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with a third of the white ganache, then a third of the cherry filling. Top with another cake layer and repeat layering two more times, finishing with the final cake layer. Spread chocolate frosting over top and sides of cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
Meanwhile, make the chocolate caramel sauce.
Just before serving, drizzle chocolate cherry cake with chocolate caramel sauce and decorate with cherries.
CHOCOLATE CARAMEL SAUCE
Scatter ½ cup (110g) of the sugar evenly across the base of a large, deep frying pan. Place over medium-high heat and watch the sugar carefully. Stir it a little to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn before the top has melted and wait about 2 minutes or until it starts to turn golden.
Add another ½ cup (110g) sugar, stir to melt in and wait 2 minutes or until it turns runny. Add remaining ½ cup (110g) sugar, stir it in, then continue cooking until the sugar has fully melted and turned dark golden (2-3 minutes). Watch it carefully (the caramel can burn very quickly), cooking until the surface just starts to foam (30 seconds to 1 minute). Turn off the heat. Stir in pouring cream, cold diced butter, pinch of salt and coarsely chopped dark chocolate. Drizzle over chocolate cherry cake. Makes 2 cups.
Can this chocolate cherry cake be made in advance?
Chocolate cherry cake will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Chocolate cherry cake recipe tips
The 160°C oven temperature in this chocolate cherry cake recipe is for conventional ovens. For fan-forced ovens, decrease the temperature by 20°C.
When cooking the two cake pans in the oven, turn and rotate items between shelves halfway through cooking time. You can use the fan-forced function to assist heat circulation, however you will need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
What is Dutch-processed cocoa powder?
Dutch-processed cocoa powder is treated with an alkali to neutralise its acids, this results in a less bitter taste and richer colour. Care should be taken swapping it for natural ‘regular’ cocoa.
The best way to level and split cakes
If the cake is domed, level it first. Hold the knife horizontally at the point where the cake starts to dome; using a gentle sawing action, work the knife across the cake, then lift away the dome.
Using a ruler, measure the halfway mark on the side of the cake and make small horizontal cuts around the side of the cake. If you like, you can insert small toothpicks at each mark to act as a guide.
Holding a finely serrated knife horizontally, using a gentle sawing action, work the knife through the middle of the cake, and out the other side to split it in half. Carefully lift the top cake layer away, supporting it if necessary with a spatula.
Tips for making chocolate caramel sauce
- Have all the ingredients weighed out and ready to go before you start. Once the sugar begins to caramelise, your attention will need to be on the caramel.
- Ensuring the sugar is dissolved is one of the most important considerations, as even a few undissolved sugar crystals could cause the caramel to crystalise. Use a clean pastry brush dipped in water to brush around the inside of the pan.
- Use a large, deep pan; the caramel will start to bubble and spit as other ingredients are added.
- Use cold butter, this will help prevent the sauce from splitting.
- Always use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar as some spatulas can melt into the hot caramel.
