Given the tartness of the cherries and the slight bitterness of the sponge, I think this is one place we can get away with doing it chantilly-style, with icing sugar and vanilla extract. Whipped cream, in quantity, is sadly a defining feature of the BFG. Be generous with the cherries too: Pizey is so mean with them, recommending less than 100g for a 23cm cake, that I wonder if it is a typo, particularly as I also ran out of whipped cream two layers in. I do like her morello cherry jam, though, which brings a more well-rounded cherry flavour to every mouthful essential when the preserved sort often lack punch. I try the ordinary tinned sort in a recipe that doesn’t specify a variety, and find them too sweet – your best bet is to go to Lidl or Aldi, which stock such everyday German essentials, though I also happen upon them frozen in my local Londis (which boasts a fairly esoteric stock), and they can occasionally be spotted pickled in booze at this time of year.īell soaks dried versions, which are more widely available, in brandy, but I find them too stridently tart the chocolate struggles to compete. Morello, or sour, cherries are sadly difficult to get hold of in this country, particularly in the depths of winter. I’m not sure Amend’s cinnamon brings anything extra to the party, though. I’m also going to use soft light brown sugar instead of caster, for a deeper, more interesting kind of sweetness. I’m not inclined to go for a third, given my growing conviction that the lighter sponges are the way forward here in any case.ĭelia’s flourless sponge, which uses cocoa powder as the sole dry ingredient, gets the biggest thumbs up of the evening, though I’m going to tweak the ratios slightly in order to give it a more intense chocolate flavour. The taste is nice enough, but the texture is tough and heavy. The Prawn Cocktail Years version, though I attempt it twice, defies me: though I sense it is supposed to be dense and moist, mine ends up more like a chocolate pancake studded with large pockets of air. In any other context, I’d find Bell’s cake the most attractive: soft and fluffy, with a rich flavour, it is a classic chocolate sponge. The Prawn Cocktail Years duo, Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham, and Annie Bell’s Baking Bible plump for much richer affairs, with the former going for melted chocolate as well as the more usual cocoa, plus butter, and Bell adding fromage frais as well. Delia Smith, Roger Pizey (described by Marco Pierre White as “one of the finest pastry chefs Britain has ever known” on the cover of his book, World’s Best Cakes) and Rita Amend, German blogger and native of the Rhine-Main, go down this road. Chill for at least an hour before serving.The most contentious aspect of the whole affair most of the recipes I find use a light, fatless sponge, which makes sense given the amount of cream it is generally considered necessary to ladle on top. Run a palette knife around the edge of the cake to smooth out any cream this should coat the outside of the cake with a thin layer of cream which will help the chocolate pencils to stick to the cake.ĭecorate the outside of the cake with a tightly packed line of chocolate pencils, then spoon the glazed cherries into the centre. Lay a second sponge on top, press down gently, then repeat the layering process, finishing with a final layer of sponge. Spread half of the jam over the top and then top with half of the cream. Set one slice on a cake stand or serving board and then spoon over 3 tablespoons of the reserved kirsch. To assemble the cake, using sharp bread knife, cut the sponge into three equal slices. Add the cornflour mixture, cook for a further minute and then set aside to cool completely. Drain the cherries, reserving the kirsch, then fold them into the cream.įor the decoration, put the fresh cherries and jam into a saucepan and cook over a high heat for 2 minutes until glossy. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.įor the filling, whisk the cream, vanilla and icing sugar until soft peaks form. Carefully pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake for 40 minutes. In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl.įold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture a third at a time. Sift in the cocoa powder and fold in, keeping as much air in as possible. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and grease and line a 22cm/8½in spring-form cake tin with baking paper.Ĭombine the egg yolks and sugar in a freestanding mixer and whisk over a high speed for 3 minutes until pale, fluffy and doubled in volume.
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