STOP! Stop what you are doing, turn on the oven, and bake this cake.  It is delicious!  It has a biscuit like base and cherry centre, and is just more-ish. I have to admit it is quite a bit of effort to make…but well worth it.   I found the recipe in delicious (care of Maggie Beer) – although tweaked it a little so I could use real dark chocolate instead of cocoa. I made this for the first time on the weekend, and will be making it again this weekend… if I can wait that long!

ingredients

2 cups self raising flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
125g cold butter cut into cubes
600g frozen pitted cherries
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp corn flour
1 egg
60g semi-sweet dark chocolate broken into pieces
250ml pure cream
100ml thickened cream
1/2 cup caster sugar

method

Preheat oven to 180°c.  Grease and line base of a 24cm springform pan. In a food processer, whiz the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon & butter until the mixture forms crumbs.  If you don’t have a food processor, rub the cold butter together with the other ingredients, using your hands, or use a pastry cutter to achieve the same effect.

Remove half the mix from the processor and press it into the cake tin to form a base – it should be no more than 1/2 a cm thick.

Add the baking powder, egg, and only 200ml of the pure cream to the remaining mix in the food processor and pulse until combined (or use a whisk). Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, add a tablespoon of water and heat in microwave for 1 minute.  Remove from microwave and stir with a fork – if there are still large lumps, heat in the microwave for a further 30 seconds.  Add remaining 50 ml cream to the chocolate and stir until smooth. Add this to the cake mixture and mix until combined.

Cover the cake base with 300g frozen cherries, reserving any juices, and then cover cherries with the chocolate cake mixture.  Bake for 40 minutes and cover with alfoil for a further 20 minutes. A skewer should come out clean when ready.  Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing and allow to cool slightly.

While the cake is baking, add some water to the  cherry juices (if any) to make up to 1/2 cup of liquid.  Pour into a saucepan with the caster sugar and heat on low until sugar dissolves. Add remaining 300g frozen cherries and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the corn flour with a little water and add to the compote, heating for a further minute.  Allow to cool slightly.

Serve chocolate cake with compote and thickened cream.

notes

I had this served warm and think it tastes much better (not that I have anything to compare it to!) – so try to time it that the cake comes out about 15-20 minutes before you are ready to serve.