I made this Black Forest Gateau for the first time today, for New Years’ Day dessert.  This is easy enough to make, it is a butter-free cake, so it is nice and light.  The sponge is:

4 large eggs whisked together with 4 oz of caster sugar.  This is whisked for about 5-6 minutes until is is creamy & thick.  Next sift in 3 oz self-raising flour, 1 oz cocoa powder/drinking chocolate.  Fold in the flour/cocoa and put into a 23cm round tin.  The tin should be lined with parchment paper.  It takes about 35 mins to bake in a fan oven at 180 degrees C.

To make the filling you will need 2 cans or tins of stoned black cherries. Drain the juice from the tins and put into a saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of cornflour.  Boil this and then simmer for a few minutes.  When this is cool, add 3 tablespoons of Kirsch Liquer – I used Creme de Cassis – which is delicious.  Add the cherries to this mixture.  Whip up the cream – you will need 600ml of double cream.

When the cake is cool, divide it into 3 by using a long, sharp knife.

Put plenty of cream and the cherry filling on each of the two layers.  A good tip is to put cream around the edges first before you put the cherry filling in, if not, it will spill out over the edges.  Put the top layer on and smother it and the entire cake in cream.

Add some roasted flaked almonds to the sides of the cake.  Next pipe some rosettes along the top of the cake, decorate with fresh cherries and shards of chocolate.  I used flake.  That’s it.  Here’s what it looked like:

BlackForestGateau

BlackForestGateau