Black Forest Gâteau

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

• 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
• 425g can pitted cherries, 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

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease two 20cm (8-inch) round cake tins with a little of the butter and dust them with flour.

2. Put the dark chocolate and 175g butter in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stir until melted. Stir in the cocoa with a splash of boiling water and let cool slightly.

3. Whisk the eggs with the buttermilk or natural yoghurt. In a large bowl, mix the flour, golden caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda.

4. Stir the cooled chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients, then beat in the egg mixture until smooth. Divide the batter between the tins.

5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until risen and springy and a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

6. Drain the canned cherries, keeping 2 tbsp of the juice. Mix the kirsch with the reserved juice to make a syrup. For a non-alcoholic version, use only the reserved juice.

7. Whip the double cream with the icing sugar until soft peaks form, then chill. Warm the morello cherry jam with a splash of water until spreadable.

8. Split each cake in half horizontally. Brush the layers with syrup, spread with jam and cream, and scatter over the drained cherries. Stack the layers, then cover the top and sides with cream. Decorate with the fresh cherries if using (optional) and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.