Kirsch Soaked Cherry Cake

Any way, it was my mum's birthday this week so I was called upon to make her a birthday cake. I was trying to think of what flavour she would like and remembered that she's quite partial to a kirsch soaked cherry every now and again. So I decided to put some of those into a chocolately cake. You need to make the kirsch soaked cherries the day before to ensure they are nice and kirschy.


For the kirsch soaked cherries:

250g pitted (or cut in half) cherries
125g water
50g caster sugar
1 tbsp kirsch

Put the sugar and water into a pan on a low heat until the sugar has melted. Add the cherries and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the juices and cherries in to a sterilised jar or clean container, mix in the kirsch and leave to soak overnight.

For the cake:

2 8 inch cake tins, greased
100g dark 70% cocoa chocolate
225g caster sugar
225g butter
4 large eggs
200g flour
50g cocoa powder
Your jar of kirsh soaked cherries

For the icing:

200g dark 70% cocoa chocolate
250g icing sugar
250g butter
3 tbsp cherry syrup (reserved from kirsch cherries)

Start by preheating the oven to 180 degrees and melting the chocolate in a bain marie, then leave to cool. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one and mix in well. Fold in the melted chocolate, flour and cocoa powder one by one. Strain the cherries from the juice and reserve the juice for the icing. Then fold most of the cherries into the mixture (saving some to decorate the top). pour in to the greased cake tins and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer placed in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool. While the cake is cooling, make the frosting by again melting the chocolate in a baine marie and leaving to cool. Then cream together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, fold in the cooled chocolate and juice from the cherries (syrup). Assemble the cake by removing the top from one of the sponges so you have a flat surface, then cover the top with a thick layer of icing and sandwich the top layer. Cover the whole cake in loads of icing and decorate with cherries!

Posted in: Baking