To make the chocolate cake: Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Generously butter two 8-inch cake pans that are at least 2-inches high, and dust with cocoa powder, tapping the ramekins slightly to remove any excess. place drained cherries in a medium bowl, and add to the bowl 1/4 cup Kirsch and 1/2 cup cherry juice from can. Leave to soak at room temperature for 30 minutes or more, then drain cherries in a sieve over a bowl, keeping both the cherries and syrup. Add more cherry juice to the syrup to get 3/4 cup syrup (you won't need the rest of the juice, discard it or save for another use). This will be the soaking syrup for the cake layers. Hi Megan. It might be a little small for all the batter, but as long as you don’t fill the pan more than 3/4 full, you should be ok. Baking time will be longer. I have made this several times already and it always comes out delicious and very pretty. The sponge is DELICIOUS and can be made into many other deserts, including just eating it by itself. I have 2 identical 8 in baking pans and I weigh the batter in each so it’s equal. I cut off the tops to even them, then cut them in half and I end up with 4 layers of equal height. The only thing that I don’t love about it is how difficult it is to put the chocolate shavings on the side, mine end up falling off and making a mess on the assembly stand. Also my chocolate shavings don’t come out as pretty, more like chocolate dust than chocolate shavings. Awesome recipe. Couldn’t find Kirsch so used a cherry whisky. Only thing I would do different next time is use more of the syrup! I had lots left over. Definitely a keeper.

I need to make this cake for tomorrow afternoon. can I bake the cake tonight and put in fridge until tomorrow? Or will it become too hard? I’m not going to decorate it until tomorrow so the whipped cream doesn’t become too hard. Also, I only have a 9 inch pan! Could this recipe work with a 9 inch? Use a palette knife to spread the remaining cream on top in big, puffy waves. Grate chocolate curls generously over them, and arrange the remaining cherries around the edge. Chill for an hour before serving.

You can use a buttermilk substitute. To make 1 cup of homemade buttermilk: take a measuring cup and pour in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or fresh lemon juice. Add milk until it reaches one cup. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes (it will look curdled and that’s fine), then use in the recipe. Don’t overmix the cake batter. Overmixing will make the cake less light and fluffy. Gently mix the batter just until the ingredients are incorporated. It was simple to assemble with your tips. I let the cake rest overnight in the fridge, as you suggested. We didn’t have 8 inch cake pans- and could not find 2 inch high ones anywhere. If you don’t have those, you can use standard 9 inch diameter, 1.5 inch high pans— they are very close in volume . ( I did the math- they are both around 100 cubic inches!). The cake came out fine. Storage instructions: Store in dry, cool ambient conditions, away from heat sources and odorous materials.

Hi Lidia, a great tip for making chocolate shavings if you are shaving them yourself from a chocolate bar: heat the chocolate bar just slightly , not so it’s melted but just warmed up. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the chocolate off the side — the warmth helps create perfect, beautiful curls! Next time, we are going to double the number of cherries (2 cans) — as is you don’t get many cherries between the layers in each slice.I baked this for a family gathering, it was large enough for everyone to have a piece, thats 15 people! Looked and tasted amazing. Having another get together tomorrow for the bank holiday and this has been requested. Thanks so much for the recipe. looking for German dessert recipe for Oktoberfest dinner party and stumbled across your recipe. What do you mean by neutral oil? Have you ever tried using coconut oil? If you’re making the pastry layer, sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Whisk together, then mix in the remaining ingredients to make a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 20 minutes. When the microwave pings, add a splash of the milk to the mug and return the jug to the microwave to finish heating. (Another 90 seconds is perfect for skimmed milk. However, it’ll need less time if you’re using coconut, semi skimmed or whole milk, so keep an eye on it).

Yum! This sound great! What an amazing cake to make in remembrance of your nephew. May your memories of him stay with you forever ❤️ Hi! I baked the two cakes but I have a question.. it’s about 1 inch high even though I used a 2” pan. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, oil, vanilla, buttermilk, and water (pour the water slowly so it won’t cook the eggs). Whisk until smooth. Add egg mixture into flour mixture and mix until smooth. Don’t overbeat – batter will be lumpy at first, but mix gently and eventually stir with a whisk just until smooth. The batter will be thin and liquid. That’s ok.

I have done a recipe that has requested to do it with an 8 inch pan, but I did it with 9. It is not this recipe, but from my experience, if you use an 9 inch pan it will not be as moist and will be more on the dry side. If you want it to be more on the moist side, use the 8 inch pans. I hope this helps. Hi Shiran, what’s the reason for draining the cherries first if they’re going to be soaked in the cherry juice from the can anyway (as described in ingredient list and Step 5) ? Hi Shiran 🙂 this recipe looks fab and I am wanting to make a rectangular version of it. Would it be wise for me to double the recipe if I wanted to split it between two 14×11 inch pans? (approx length can’t remember exactly haha) Thank you, Shiran, for the recipe! Everybody loved it! This time, it was for my husband’s birthday. Hello! I was wondering for the whipped cream, would only 1 1/4 cup of heavy cream be enough to cover the entire cake? I only have that much on hand and I want to make this for Mother’s Day! Is there any way to add more liquid (like milk) to the heavy cream to make more of it? Thanks in advance!

Hi Chloe, I usually don’t recommend freezing whipped cream frosting, but I did freeze a few pieces of this cake myself and they kept well. I recommend freezing only leftovers, and then thaw overnight in the fridge.

Chocolate cake –I bake the batter in two 8-inch pans, then cut each cake layer in half to get a total of 4 layers. I am excited to make this cake! As far as the hot water goes, what temperature should the water be? Is tap water hot enough, or should I boil the water? Thank you for your time and attention. I made this recipe yesterday, lovely moist sponge, but I added a bit more flour as the amount of flour to liquid, just didn’t seem right. Did you find this? Also alit of sugar 400g- I reduced this too. Cakecwas lovely. I used morello cherries from a jar and used its syrup as i prefer to kirsch. I didnt have sour cream so soured the milk as said . I cant fault this cake. A good tip was to get cake cold before decorating. I didnt cream all over either as enough in the middle. Sprinkled top with soft icing. Looked and tasted amazing. Highly reccomend you try this. Friends said they were at a high tea. Very pleasing.