Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Blackforest Cake)

My boyfriend's birthday was coming up so I asked him what kind of cake he'd like, his response was swift: a blackforest cake. I was a little intimidated to try it but I'd seen my dad make one a few times (he's a huge fan of them too). So I contacted my dad and asked him to send me his recipe (which was all in Swiss-German). I was still unsure whether I could handle it, and was looking at other chocolate cake recipes...that was until I received a parcel in the mail, from my parents, containing the recipe and most of the ingredients I would need to make it. Side note: my parents are awesome. After a lot of fun attempting to translate the recipe I ended up making the cake and it turned out to be a success and the boyfriend loved it...so did I.

The Cake:

• 120g margarine or softened butter
• 120g sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons kirsch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 120g almonds, peeled and ground
• 120g dark chocolate, grated finely
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 120g flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 6 egg whites, beaten 'til stiff
• 1 pinch salt

Method:

Beat the margarine/butter, sugar and egg yolks until foamy.

Fold in the kirsch, water, almonds, chocolate and vanilla sugar.

Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add salt, mix lightly then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake in a 25cm tin for 50 minutes at 175 Celsius.

When cool, slice the cake twice horizontally to create three equal layers of cake.

The Filling:

• 1 tablespoon kirsch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 3 sheets of gelatine
• 500ml cream
• 700g sour cherries, drained

Method:

Mix the kirsch and water and drizzle it over the three layers.

Dissolve the gelatine according to the directions on packet, then fold it into the beaten cream, coat the two bases leaving some cream for decoration.

Distribute the cherries on the two layers, then place the two layers on top of each other then place 'lid' on top.

Coat the entire cake in cream and decorate how you wish. I chose to melt some of the leftover dark chocolate and smear teaspoonful sized blobs on greaseproof paper to create some shards to place around the edges and top. I then just grated some milk chocolate on top.