Black Forest Cherry Cake

 Ingredients

 For the Decoration

• 500 g Plain Chocolate

 For the Cake

• 450 g Butter
• 55g Plain Flour plus a little more for dusting the tins
• 5 Eggs
• 0.5 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 170 g Sugar
• 55 g Cocoa
• 140 g Melted butter

 For the Syrup

• 115 Sugar
• 60 g Icing Sugar
• 2 tbs Kirsch

 For the layers

• 170 g Pitted Morello Cherries, drained and sprinkled with Lemon Juice
• 600 ml Fresh Whipping or Double Cream

Method

This is the method for making the cake.  It is very llight as it is fatless.  If you want a heavier cake then make a double quantity of Mrs Allatt's Chocolate Cake.

Beat the eggs, vanilla essence and sugar in a bowl until thick and fluffy.  Sift the flour and cocoa into the bowl a little at a time and stir gently.  Pour into 3 cake tins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes in a moderate oven.

Grease the cake tin with butter and dust with flour.

To make the syrup put the sugars  into approximately a quarter of a pint of water and stir to dissolve over low heat.  Then bring to the boil for 5 minutes.  Leave to cool and stir in the kirsch.  More kirsch if you like it.

Prick the surface of the cakes and gently pour the syrup over the cakes.

Sandwich the cakes with whipped cream and cherries.  Cover the cake with cream piping decorations to the top.  Grate chocolate to decorate and place glace cherries on the cream piping.

Do not delay long before eating.

I like to make this with fresh Morello Cherries from my garden.  I used to have a plentiful supply until a neighbour's electricity went off and had to be rewired through my garden.  The digging of a trench damaged the roots of the fan trained trees and they died the following year.  In their first year the two new trees produced just 11 good cherries.  I hope for better crops in the years to come.  Well that was what I wrote in 2010.  The trees never came to full fruiting, a mixture of poor soil and an attack by a neighbour putting in a new electricity cable.  Now in France I have one tree doing very well.