Black Forest Cake

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Serves 8-10

It was my dad’s 60th birthday on Saturday so I decided to make him his favourite cake; the black forest. He’s not vegan but he is a vegetarian and is always up for sampling my cooking efforts. With layers of thick cream and cherries sandwiched between bitchin’ chocolate cake and slathered in melted dark chocolate, this one ain’t for the lighthearted.

When it comes to layered cakes, I simply cannot be bothered with the tedious task of cutting a big cake into three or four equal layers. No, not doing that. My solution is making three smaller cakes and trimming the tops of them. It’s much easier and you get to sample some of the cake before it’s even finished. Don’t be put off by the difficulty rating either; it’s a time consuming cake with a lot of steps but anyone with some experience in the kitchen should be able to pull this one off without a hitch!

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons egg replacer
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 1/4 cups soy milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups plain flour
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 block vegan chocolate, melted

• 1 can pitted black cherries in syrup
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 cartons Soyatoo Topping Cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2/3 block vegan dark chocolate, melted
• 1/4 cup soy milk

Method

1. Grease three small springform pans and preheat oven to 180°C.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer and water before setting aside.
3. Now, in a medium bowl, combine the oil, soy milk, salt, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
4. Set that one aside and in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa.
5. Add the egg replacer to the wet mixture and combine well before slowly adding the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix furiously until few lumps remain.
6. Fold in the melted chocolate before evenly distributing the mixture between the three pans and pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool before picking the cake that looks best, set that one aside. With a sharp knife, carefully carve the tops off of the other two cakes so that they have a flat top. I encourage you to eat the scraps at this point.
8. While the cakes are cooling, combine the juice from the cherries, the sugar and the cornflour in a saucepan. Stir with a fork over medium heat until the cornflour is mixed in.
9. Add the cherries and stir gently while bringing the mixture to the boil. As it starts to thicken, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely in the fridge.
10. In a medium bowl, combine the Soyatoo and the vanilla and combine well.
11. In another medium bowl, combine the melted chocolate and the soy mik.
12. Now the cake can be built! put one of the flat top cakes on your cake plate before smothering the top evenly with the cream mixture. Scatter some cherries evenly over the cream.
13. Put the second flat top cake onto the cherries. Slather that layer with the rest of the cream and cherries.
14. Pop the top cake on and slowly pour the chocolate mixture onto the top of the cake until it begins to drip down the sides.
15. Serve immediately.