Black forest gateau recipe

This black forest gateau recipe was one of the challenges the bakers had to face on The Great British Bake off Series 6, Episode one 2015.  I set myself a challenge to bake all three challenges the bakers face and this is my result.  I made an alcohol free version of the black forest gateau by using the cherry juice instead of the alcohol.

The canned pitted cherries are very difficult to find where I am, even in the big supermarket chains.  I ended up finding mine in a not so big supermarket chain but they were in a glass jar instead of a can like the recipe says.

Basically, the best way to describe a black forest gateau is a very moist chocolate cake with a lot of cream and chocolate icing or chocolate decorations.

Ingredients

• 175g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 200g dark chocolate
• 300g plain flour
• 375g golden caster sugar
• 25g cocoa
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 medium eggs
• 200g natural yoghurt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Decorating the Black Forest Gateau

• 425g can pitted cherries, 6 tbsp juice reserved, rest drained
• 100g cherry conserve or cherry jam
• 500ml tub double cream
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 small punnet fresh cherries (optional)

Method

• Heat oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins.Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted.
• Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and natural yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml warm water and mix until the mixture is lump free.
• Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins. Use a cocktail stick to check if it is done. If it comes out clean it is ready.
• Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer and drizzle the 6 tbsp reserved cherry juice over the cakes and let them cool completely.
• Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl, pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable.
• When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. Stack the cakes together. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes.
• Pile the fresh cherries on top of the cake

Serve and Enjoy the Black Forest Gateau!