Black Forest gâteau

If there's one cake memory I have from growing up in the 1980s, it's Black Forest gâteau. This decadent cake represented the height of indulgence with its layers of dark chocolate cake, whipped cream, cherries and ganache. What's the difference between gâteau and cake, you ask? Basically, nothing - although it largely depends on which country you're from. As I see it, gâteau is a much more exotic name for layered cake and particularly fitting for this recipe.

I've made this cake for a couple of birthdays recently, starting with this BBC Food recipe as a base and adapting it slightly (of course). It takes a long time for the cake to cook and cool so I bake the cake one day in advance and assemble it a few hours before serving.

For today's cake, I replaced the cherries with chopped Black Doris plums and used reduced plum syrup instead of cherries and kirsch. Plums are (marginally) cheaper and have a slightly more tart flavour than cherries. Be warned: this is a very rich, dense cake and not for the faint hearted.

Black Forest gâteau

Ingredients

• 340 g butter, softened
• 340 g sugar
• 6 eggs
• 240 g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
• 80 g cocoa, sifted
• 850 g tin Black Doris plums, drained and coarsely chopped (remove stones)
• 500 ml cream
• 200 g quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Lightly grease and line a 20 cm (8") loose bottomed cake tin.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the sifted flour, baking powder and cocoa.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Smooth the surface with a knife and bake for approx 1 hour 30 mins until firm and springy and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
6. Drain the plums (or cherries), leaving 200 ml of the syrup. Boil syrup in a small pot until reduced by half (approx 10 minutes). Set aside to cool.
7. Slice cooled cake horizontally into three layers. Place each layer onto a chopping board and spoon the plum syrup evenly over each disc, leaving it to soak in.
8. To make the ganache, place 200 g of the cream (yes, weigh the cream) in a medium-sized pot and heat to scalding point. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, stirring gently until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside to cool and thicken slightly.
9. Whip the remaining cream until thick. Spread one of the cake layers with half the cream then cover with half the coarsely chopped plums. Place the second layer of cake over this and repeat, finishing with the third layer on top. Gently press the whole cake together with the palms of your hands.
10. Use a palette knife to spread chocolate ganache over the top or top and sides of the cake, starting with the top layer.
11. Leave the cake to set in a cool place (not necessarily in the fridge) and cut into large wedges to serve.

Black Forest gâteau