Bake Along with Bake Off : Black Forest Gateau

It's my favourite time of year again. Season 6 of Great British Bake Off started last week and after 6 years and one almost successful attempt to be on the show, I love it just as much as I did on the first episode.

For the past 2 years I've attempted to 'Bake Along with Bake Off', yet got about half way through and failed. All of the recipes are sat in my drafts section, I just never got around to actually baking them. This year, I have more time on my hands and a bit more motivation. Plus it's just embarrassing if I fail three years in a row!

The first week on Bake Off the contestants made a black forest gateau. I had a black forest cake at The Parlour in Fortnum's a few months ago and it was one of the nicest cakes I have ever eaten, so I was more than happy to try this recipe out for myself. I decided to stay away from the chocolate mousse, to avoid any similar disasters as on the show and slightly adapted the Black Forest Gateau recipe on BBC Good Food.

Let me know if any of you try it out for yourself!

Recipe - Black Forest Gateau

Ingredients

175g butter

200g dark chocolate

300g plain flour

375g golden caster sugar

25g cocoa

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

200g buttermilk

425g can of cherry pie filling

100g cherry jam

6tbsp kirsch

500ml double cream

3 tbsp icing sugar

1 small punnet of cherries

1. 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. 

2. 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. 

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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. 

6. 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.