Double Chocolate Cherry Cake

So this is the first time I've ever made a cake from scratch before, and I decided to challenge myself to the full extent. This monster has fruit filling, buttercreme frosting, chocolate ganache, and chocolate choco chocolate! It was for my friend Melissa's birthday and though we're all trying to go on diets, it just made sense to have one last hurrah.

Ingredients for cake:

• 2.5 cups of cake flour
• .5 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1.25 cups of chocolate milk/heavy creme [half and half]
• 2 tsps baking soda
• dash of white vinegar
• 1.5 cups of canola oil
• dash of salt

I basically just threw it all together and turned the beater on, but I noticed the cocoa powder was flying everywhere and making little dust clouds. So I would put all the wet ingredients with just the flour first, and then pour in the rest slowly and surely.

Grease the bottoms of two cake tins with butter, pour evenly and preheat the oven to 350F. These are gonna cook for a good 40-45 minutes. But keep your eye on them, nobody likes dried out cake. Once you can pierce it with a fork and the fork comes out clean, you know it's ready. Let them cool on a wire rack until you're ready to put the cake together.

While these are baking you can start with the Fruit filling!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 1 carton of blueberries
• .25 cup of sugar
• squeeze of a whole lemon
• dash of flour to thicken
• .5 stick of butter

This is gonna take awhile, it's just like making a reduction. Start by melting your butter and throwing in your cherries. These need to cook a good half hour before you throw in the blueberries, sugar, and lemon. All in all it should take anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour. You'll start to see it kind of break down and look almost like jelly... But not quite.

At the end add some flour to thicken it up, you should only need a tiny bit. This is just so it doesn't leak out all over the cake. Place in the freezer to cool, because you can't put it warm on the ganache otherwise it will melt! Every 5 minutes or so, check on the cherries and stir them to make sure they cool evenly.

Ingredients for chocolate ganache:

• 1.5 cups of heavy creme
• 1.5 cups of semi sweet chocolate, chopped or chipped
• 1 cup of bitter chocolate, chopped or chipped

In the house I'm living in now, the family has a never ending supply of every single gourmet chocolate 60% or better so it was orgasmic to get to choose! Remember, you only want to use good chocolate, milk chocolate is crap compared to the real stuff.

Boil your heavy creme on the stove and watch carefully, cause once it goes it goes! It'll start to bubble up like crazy and will overflow if you're not careful. Combine your chocolate in a heat resistant bowl and pour the boiling creme over top. Let it sit for a good minute or two, then slowly whisk together. Being careful not to burn yourself!

This is the first time I've made ganache, it is delectable. I can't wait to make it again! Not only is it delicious, but there are so many consistencies you can work with! If you let it sit and cool, it will be like liquid chocolate. Put it in the fridge to cool, and it'll have an almost fudge like thickness with just a little give. Chill it and then whip it for 5 to 10 minutes, and you've got what tastes exactly like chocolate mouse.

I decided to go with the latter, what I did notice though is that when you whip it and then set it aside... It will get harder and harder. So maybe you don't need to whip it for 10 minutes like I did ;D

Ingredients for butter creme frosting:

• 1 cup of butter
• 3.5 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa
• dash of vanilla
• dash of chocolate milk [little less then a quarter cup]

Slowly beat together your butter and sugar, adding a little sugar at a time! Once all that is mixed, then you can add the rest and whip it up! Set aside and taste to see if you want it sweeter or not.

Now you can put the cake together! :D Place a plate over top of the cake tins, flip it over, and give it a nice smack on the bottom like you were hitting a red headed step child! The cake should just slide right out.

Place the first layer on a cake plate, and slather the top with the chocolate ganache! Don't be afraid to just pile it on there! Next, you'll take the chilled fruit and pile that on top of the ganache, again... Don't be afraid! I've always noticed that cake, no matter how moist and perfect... You still need a glass of milk to wash it down. So I always pile on the icing cause that's how I prefer it. If you're not an icing lover like me though, cut back a little.

Add the top layer and then use a spatula and ice the cake with the chocolate buttercreme frosting. I garnished with a little lemon peel and some of the fruit filling to let people know what's inside of it ;D


Oh look, it's me!

And there you have it! My first cake, delicious and beautiful and death by chocolate. It was so much fun, and I can't wait to try a nice light vanilla one next time!







Later food lovers,
I'm gonna go eat some eggs!
Justin Francis Kane
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