Using a palette knife, cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the cream. Spoon a quarter of the remaining cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle set aside. Brush with syrup (you may have a little syrup left). Spread a little more cream over the cherries, then top with the final sponge, upside down, to give an even, flat top.

Spread over a layer of the kirsch cream, about 1cm (½in) deep. Sandwich together with a second sponge and brush again with the syrup. Brush the sponge with some of the syrup spread over the raspberry preserve. Place a little kirsch cream on a serving plate and secure one of the sponges on top. To assemble the cake, level the tops of the sponges using a sharp knife, if necessary. To make the kirsch cream, whip the cream and sugar to firm peaks, then fold in the vanilla and kirsch. To make the syrup, put 200ml water and the sugar in a pan bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Shave the block of chocolate using a potato peeler or by scraping the blade of a kitchen knife across the surface. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out on to a rack to cool completely. Stir in the melted butter.ĭivide the cake mixture between the tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until springy to the touch. Sift the cocoa powder and flour together, then fold in. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla and sugar together using an electric hand whisk until thick and the whisk leaves a trail – it will take about 10 minutes.

Grease 3 x 22cm-diameter sandwich cake tins and line the bases with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180☌, fan 160☌, gas 4. Bake the cakes a day ahead and store in an airtight tinįirst, make the sponges.

Black forest cake recipe traditional