James Martin Black Forest Gateau Food

BLACK FOREST CAKE

Steps:

• GARNISH:.
• Using a vegetable parer, scrape across chocolate to make curls; refrigerate until needed. Loosely grate remainder of chocolate bar and refrigerate until ready to garnish.
• GLAZED CHERRIES:.
• Combine cherries with kirsch; let stand 1 hour. In small saucepan, mix cornstarch with cherry juice. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; simmer 5 minutes until thickened. Let cool; add cherries and stir well to mix.
• CAKE:.
• Prepare three 8-inch-diameter layer-cake pans by greasing and flouring.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In large bowl of electric mixer, beat eggs at high speed until light. Add 1 cup granulated sugar gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat 10 minutes or until very thick. Add vanilla.
• Sift sifted flour with cocoa; fold into egg mixture in fourths, using a wire whisk or rubber spatula. Fold in butter, in fourths, until just combined. Gently turn into prepared pans. Bake 15 minutes or until surface springs back when pressed with finger.
• Place pans on wire rack and cool 5 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.
• SYRUP:.
• In a small saucepan, stir granulated sugar and ½ cup water over medium heat to dissolve sugar. Bring to boil and boil 5 minutes. Cool, and stir in kirsch.
• ASSEMBLE CAKE:.
• Using a skewer, make several holes in each cake layer; drizzle syrup over layers.
• Beat heavy cream with confectioners' sugar until stiff.
• Invert one cake layer onto serving plate; spread with glazed cherries; top with 1 cup whipped cream. Top with second layer and 1 cup cream.
• Add top cake layer; spread side and top of cake with whipped cream, decorating with 12 whipped-cream rosettes around top edge. Refrigerate cake.
• Just before serving, arrange chocolate curls on top of cake and sprinkle side of cake with grated chocolate.

BLACK FOREST GATEAU

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins. Boil the kettle. 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 with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free.
• Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they're on different shelves. To test they're done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean.
• Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes.
• 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 in and around the cake and serve

BLACK FOREST TRIFLE

Steps:

• Put the custard into a pan with the chocolate pieces. Gently heat, stirring, until the chocolate has melted into the custard. Cover with cling film and cool.
• Arrange the brownies in the base of a trifle bowl. Drain the jars of cherries, reserving the liquid, and scatter over the brownies. Drizzle over 100ml reserved liquid. Spoon the cooled chocolate custard over and chill while you make the topping.
• Lightly whip the cream with the crème fraîche and icing sugar until soft peaks form. Chill until ready to serve, then pile on top of the trifle and decorate with grated chocolate and fresh cherries, if you like.