Black Forest Cake

I've always loved chocolate. And if I have to choose between chocolate and more chocolate... Well I think the outcome is pretty obvious!

Few days ago, me and some friends had 2 reasons to party: our graduation and my birthday. Of course the first one requires a lot of alcohol. On the other hand, I was actually planning to get a cake. However, "someone" figured out that if we eat anything between the drinks it would irreversibly disturb our path towards a bad hangover next morning. So... no cake!

Next day, and after having a huge cup of coffee, I decided that even if my birthday was already over it was still nice to have a delicious birthday cake, my all time favorite Black Forest. And since in Amsterdam finding a good Black Forest is probably much harder than doing a Master's degree I headed towards the supermarket for ingredients. I have to warn you that this cake is pure evil and is not appropriate for people who diet. I think it would be better for my feeling of guilt not to attempt to count the calories! The recipe seems insanely long but in fact it's really easy to make and takes no more than 1.5 hour.

INGREDIENTS:

For the dough:

5 eggs
150gr sugar
125gr flour
40gr cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp white vinegar

For the syrup:

150gr white sugar (you could also use brown sugar to make the syrup taste more intense)
100ml water
3 tbsp black rum or rum essence (you could of course use any other flavoring syrup but personally I find this combination the best)

For the filling:

800ml double cream
80gr caster sugar
350gr canned cherries, pitted
100gr cherry jam (you could as well use strawberry jam, just make sure it's thick enough)
Some choco flakes for decoration

1. Beat the eggs and the sugar with a mixer until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture is white and puffy.
2. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and vinegar and mix with a spoon until until the dough is smooth. The mix of baking powder and vinegar produces a chemical reaction, creating bubbles that will make the dough soft and spongy. While mixing try to capture the air inside the dough.
3. Cover a deep round baking tray (diameter 20-25cm) with foil and transfer all the mixture inside
4. Bake in a warmed up over at 220°C for about 40 minutes or until the cake is cooked through. To see if it is ready stick a match inside it. If it comes up clean, with no raw dough on it, the cake is baked. Set aside to cool.
5. In a small sauce pan mix water and sugar and cook it until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is boiling intensively. Let it cool and then add the rum. The syrup is ready.
6. With a mixer beat the cream with the caster sugar until it forms a whipped cream. Be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you risk turning your cream into sweet butter. Alternatively, you could use 800ml of already prepared whipped cream.
7. Once the cake is cold, slice it with a sharp knife into 3 "disks" of same thickness. Place the first disk on a plate and pour a generous amount of syrup over it. The cake should be soaked.
8. Spread half of the jam on the surface and cover with 1/3 of the whipped cream.
9. Place half of the cherries randomly over the cream and cover with the next "cake disk". Repeat steps 7-9 once again. Save some cherries for the decoration.
10. Soak the last cake disk in syrup and place it on top.
11. Spread the remaining cream all over the cake and sprinkle with choco flakes. Place some cherries on top and Voilà.