Chocolate and Cherry is a combo that all of us have known and loved all these years. I do have a recipe for our cult favourite Black forest Cake on the blog. This is just a jazzed-up version if I had to put it simply. I made my classic chocolate sponge, slathered it with coconut and cherry buttercream and stuffed beautiful, luscious, juicy cherries and topped it with even more cherries and berries. I guess this cake is just one of my ways to satisfy my chocolate cherry cravings hahaha!
I have been working on quite a lot of interesting recipes these days. However, other family commitments have kept me occupied for the most part. In other news, I finished the Harry Potter series again and picked up A Clash of Kings and am enjoying every bit of it.
Coming to this cake, I don’t really need to explain much but I’ll just mention a few key points to make things a lot easier. This is a very easy chocolate cake recipe and requires very minimal prep/work.
- Oil: I have used all oil in this cake and no butter, the oil keeps the cake really moist and provides a delicate crumb so even if you refrigerate it, it’ll stay soft and squishy. I recommend using a flavourless oil, I prefer Sunflower Oil.
- Cocoa: You can either use Regular Unsweetened Cocoa or Dutch processed Cocoa. Please do not use “Chocolate powder” or “Hot Chocolate Mix” it is not the same and your recipe will not result in a satisfying cake.
- Cherries: Use the best quality cherries you can find and that will ensure your cake has the best flavour.
- FROSTING: This is crucial. I used Coconut extract in my buttercream to give it a prominent coconut flavour, you can try using coconut cream but it makes the frosting quite loose and you will have to add more icing sugar which will make it way too sweet and I do not prefer that.
- Colour for the frosting: I blended the cherries (pitted) in a food processor and strained it and used 2 tablespoons of the puree to add to my frosting. You may add a drop of pink food colour if you want a stronger colour.
An easy and delicious adaptation of the black forest cake just with a few easy tweaks to make a show-stopping, delicious dessert.
- 250 g plain flour
- 280 g castor sugar
- 50 g Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 ml Coconut milk (May use regular milk)
- 1 1/2 tsp Apple Cider vinegar
- 90 ml flavourless vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tps vanilla extract
- 200 ml water + 2 tsp instant coffee granules
- 190 g Unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 200 g Icing sugar (sifted)
- 2 tbsp Cherry puree (strained) made by blending a handful of pitted cherries in a blender until smooth and strained.
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Coconut extract (Add sparingly while keeping the flavour intensity in mind)
- 1 drop Pink food colour (OPTIONAL)
- 200 g Fresh pitted cherries
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Preheat your oven to 175°C and grease and line two deep 7 inch round cake pans (I used deep pans so that I could cut the cake into half to get a total of 4 layerYou can by all means use two 8 inch round cake pans.
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In a large bowl mix the coffee granules into the warm water, once dissolved add the oil and mix well.
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Add both the sugar and whisk well, then add the eggs one by one, mixing after each addition. Then add your vanilla.
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In a separate bowl, sift your flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda then add this to your wet mixture in three stages alternating with the milk. Lastly add the vinegar.
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Bake your cakes for about 25 minutes, keep checking after 23 minutes. When a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, they’re done. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack before taking them out of the pan.
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Add the room temperature butter into a medium large bowl and blend it using a hand held blender or a stand mixer for 5 minutes.
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Add the sifted icing sugar and salt in two stages and mix on high speed.
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Add the cherry puree and coconut extract (food colour if using) and whisk until well combined.
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After the cakes have cooled completely, cut them in half, I did so because I used deep 7-inch pans and I wanted more layers. You may avoid this step if you use 8-inch pans.
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Place the first layer on a cake stand/plate and add a dollop of frosting and spread evenly.
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Now add a layer of freshly pitted chopped cherries.
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Add the next layer and repeat the process of adding the frosting and the cherries till the last layer.
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If your cake seems weak to work with, refrigerate for 30 minutes and continue frosting.
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I covered my cake in the buttercream and added more cherries and berries and mint leaves to decorate.
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Refrigerate for 30 minutes before cutting and serving.
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