Black Forest Cake

A moist chocolate sponge cake, filled and topped with whipped cream and cherries. Nothing can beat the flavor of this cake.

Ingredients:

230 g./8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
½ teaspoon baking powder
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups flour
¼ cup potato flour
1 ½ tablespoon cocoa powder

For the syrup:

½ cup sugar
1 cup water
Zest of an orange
Juice of 1 orange

For the filling:

3 cups heavy cream
⅓ cup sugar

1 cup cherries, pitted
semi-sweet chocolate shavings, for garnishing

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or a microwave. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes, or until the contents triple in volume
Sift the flour, potato flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder over the egg mixture and fold gently with a wooden spoon.
Scrape down the edges of the bowl.
Grease a round cake tin (30cm/12 inches) with a small piece of butter, then lightly coat it with flour.
Pour the batter over the greased cake tin.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until you insert a skewer in the center of the cake and it comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake.
Invert to a flat dish.

To prepare the whipped cream, place the heavy cream and sugar in a mixing bowl and whip cream until soft peaks form. Make sure not to over beat. Place directly in the refrigerator.

To prepare the syrup, place the sugar water, orange zest, and orange juice in a heavy bottom saucepan over high heat, and bring just to a boil. Stir and set aside.

Split the cake into two layers horizontally.
Pour the syrup evenly over the two halves, and spread half the whipped cream evenly over the lower layer. Sprinkle the pitted cherries over the cream.
Place the upper layer of the cake over the lower layer.
Cover the surface of the cake with rest of the whipped cream.
Sprinkle some semi-sweet chocolate shavings over the cream. Decorate with a couple of pitted cherries.