Black Forest Gateau

Ingredients:

CAKE:
4oz/100g Irish butter
8oz /225g brown sugar
4oz /100g Bournville plain chocolate
2 eggs
7oz /200g Odlums Self-raising Flour
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 pint sour cream
3 tablespoons strong cold black coffee

PASTRY BASE:
4oz/100g cream flour
pinch of salt
2oz /50g icing sugar
2 oz/50g Irish butter
1 egg yolk
a few drops of vanilla essence

TOPPING:
1 pint cream
1lb tin black cherries
4 table spoons black cherry jam
brandy or cherry juice
4oz/100g grated chocolate

Method:

FOR THE CAKE:
1. Line and grease a deep, round 9-inch tin. Cream butter and sugar well together.
2. Melt the chocolate by putting it into a bowl and stand in a saucepan of hot water over a gentle heat. Beat melted chocolate into creamed mixture.
3. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift flour, salt and cinnamon together and fold lightly into mixture with the sour cream and cold coffee.
4. Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes .When baked cool on a wire rack.

FOR THE BASE:
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and bind until the mixture forms a stiff. 2. Roll the pastry onto a floured board worktable until pastry is about the same size as the base of the tin.
3. Lay out on baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes.

ASSEMBLE & DECORATE:
1. Split the cake into 3 layers. Whip cream until it holds its shape. Drain the cherries, reserve 8 for decoration and remove the stones from the remainder.
2. Put pastry on serving plate and spread the pastry with black cherry jam. Soak the cakes with spirit used.
3. Put one layer of cake on top of coated pastry. spread a layer of cream with half the stoned cherries. Put the second layer of cake on the gateau and add another layer of cream and cherries .Finish with the top cake layer.

TO COMPLETE:
Put some cream into pastry piping bag with a star pipe attached, and reserve this for the decoration; mask the entire cake with the remaining cream and press on the grated chocolate. Decorate the top with piped rosettes of cream and the reserved whole black cherries.