Chocolate Cherry Cake

This cake is sort of an ode to one of my best friends. My friend gave me a chocolate cake with cherry filling and a chocolate ganache toping for my birthday a few years ago. God it was so good! Cherries and chocolate go so well together. Which is why I tried out this sinfully good combination. It is almost a black forest cake but it misses whipped cream, which is a key ingredient in black forest cakes. Whipped cream or not, it’s still one delicious cake!

Chocolate Cherry Cake recipe: adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for the cake:
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons best cocoa
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup cherry jam

Ingredients for the icing:
- 1 ½ ounces milk chocolate
- 1 ½ ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- ½ teaspoon hot water

Instructions for the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Then, using an electric mixer, add the butter.
- In a wide-mouthed measuring cup, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly combined. (I added ¼ cup milk because the batter didn't have a dropping consistency)
- Pour the batter into 2 8-inch (I used 2 9-inch) pans buttered or lined with parchment or wax paper and bake for 30 minutes (mine needed 25 minutes). When they’re ready the cakes should be starting to shrink back from the edges of the tins. Leave for 10 minutes in their pans on racks, then turn out to cool. Spread the cherry jam between the cakes.

Instructions for the icing:
- To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave or in a bowl over hot water. (I went for the latter; smallest chance of failing)
- Let cool a little, then stir in the sour cream, vanilla and syrup.
- Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and a little hot water, blending until smooth.
- When you’ve got the texture right - thick enough to cover but supple enough to spread, adding more sugar or water as required - you can ice the cakes.


This chocolate batter isn’t the best ‘lick out of a bowl’ batter, but believe me, it makes up for it when it is baked.

The cherry jam filling. Scrumptious!

Iced and decorated.

Moist, moist, moist! :D

You can hardly see the cherry jam. It’s kind of a surprise!