Black Forest Cake

It's my nephew's birthday and his favourite cake is Black Forest cake. "Auntie Giz, could you make me a black forest cake for my birthday"? With pleasure J... and really with pleasure since this kid NEVER asks for anything. He's always the first one up from the dinner table offering to help with dishes, preparing coffee and walking my dogs. At 12 years old I marvel at his selflessness and kind nature.

Thankfully, there is a world of black forest cake recipes - from the most elaborate to the dead simple. I guess you'll have a really hard time figuring out which one I opted for.

A huge big thank you goes out to a fellow blogger who really saved my skin.
Anna at Cookie Madness ingeniously had a quick and really delicious version.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong brewed coffee, cold
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans

Combine milk and vinegar to make sour milk; set aside

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the eggs, oil, coffee and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in the sour milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Place pans on center rack and place a cookie sheet on lower rack just in case there are spill-overs. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. (mine was done in 27 minutes). Cool completely before filling.

Assembly

With long serrated knife, split each cake layer horizontally in half. Tear one split layer into crumbs, set aside. For finer crumbs, you can pulse the cake layer in the food processor.

Place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread about 1 cup whipped cream, top with about 3/4 cup cherry topping. Top with second cake layer; repeat layers of whipped cream and cherry topping. Top with third cake layer. Frost side of cake with remaining whipped cream. Pat reserved crumbs onto frosting on side of cake. Arrange a bit more filling on top in a decorative way.

Filling:

2 (20 oz) cans pitted sour cherries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Combine reserved juice, cherries, 1 cup sugar and cornstarch in a 2 quart saucepan. Cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Cool before using.

Whipped Cream:

3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine whipping cream and confectioner's sugar in a chilled medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.