Chocolate and Cherry Birthday Cake

For a friend's birthday this year I decided to bake a cake containing 2 of their favourite foods – chocolate and cherries. The cake resulted in him eating a bit too much of it and not being able to move. He then attempted to eat some for breakfast until I stopped him. So I’ll take that as a good sign!

Chocolate and Cherry Birthday Cake

Makes 1 x 20 cm cake – I used a springform tin for ease and I greased and lined it with baking parchment.

Ingredients

Cake:

2 tablespoons cocoa

3 tablespoons boiling water

227g margarine

227g caster sugar

4 eggs

227g self-raising flour

2 tsps baking powder

A jar of Morello cherries in syrup

3 Packets of Milk Chocolate Fingers

 

Icing:

150g plain or semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces

75g unsalted butter, diced

2 tbsp milk

3 egg yolks

150g icing sugar, sifted

 

Topping:

Large Handful of fresh cherries - destoned

75g White Chocolate – melted and slightly cooled

75g Dark Chocolate – melted and slightly cooled

(Set aside a chunk of each chocolate to grate over)

Method

Cake:

1. Pre-heat the over to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease cake tin.
2. Blend the cocoa and water in a mixing bowl then leave to cool slightly. Beat    margarine and sugar till fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and best till combined. Sift in flour and baking powder beat until thoroughly blended. Add the cocoa and mix well. Pour into tin and level out.
3. Bake for about 25 minutes or until well risen. Leave to cool in tin for a few minutes before turning out.
4. When cooled slice cake in half.

Icing:

1. Put the chocolate, butter and milk in a medium heatproof bowl.
2. Place over a pan of just-simmering water until the chocolate and butter have melted – the mixture should be warm but not hot. Remove from the heat and beat until smooth.
3. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the sugar, a third at a time, beating to a thick, smooth spreading consistency. If you need to add more sugar to thicken do it a spoonful at a time.

To Assemble:

1. Drizzle cherry syrup from the jar over base layer of sponge (Use the half of the cake which has a slight upward bump. It would have been the top of the cake initially. Save the flattest layer for the top of the cake for ease of icing).
2. Spread a third the icing over base.
3. Cover with a layer of the cherries from the jar and place top half of cake on top.
4. Using remaining icing cover top and sides of cake.
5. Working quickly place chocolate fingers vertically around the cake using the icing as a glue. Push them in slightly to seal well.
6. Trim stalks off the cherries and dip half in the melted white chocolate and half in the melted dark chocolate.
7. Arrange cherries on top of cake. Drizzle over any remaining melted chocolate. Sprinkle over grated chocolate. Leave to set and then serve.