6 eggs
6 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp flour
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1-2 tsp milk
Filling/Icing
450 g fresh cream
6-8 tbsp icing sugar
225 g fresh cherries or 1 bottle cocktail
cherries for topping only
6 oz plain milk chocolate, grated
Preheat oven to gas mark 6/200° C. Grease and line two 9 inch spring form tins. Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer on high speed or by hand until light and fluffy or it turns pale in colour. Sieve together the dry ingredients thrice to ensure lightness of the flour and fold gently into the egg mixture a little at a time, alternating with milk. Pour mixture into two greased tins, lower oven temperature to gas mark 4/180° C and bake for 15-20 minutes or until firm to touch. Do not open the oven unnecessarily otherwise the cake will collapse. Cool cakes on wire tray.
Icing: Carefully whip fresh cream in a bowl
held over a larger bowl containing ice cubes, add in the icing sugar. Over whipping will result in butter! Spread one third of the cream onto one cake, place the second cake on top and sandwich the two together. Spread the cake completely with the remainder of the cream and decorate the top with the grated chocolate and cherries.
Chef’s tip: To make chocolate caraques, place a
plain chocolate slab in the refrigerator until it is firm and hard. When hard, scrape the chocolate with a potato peeler to make long curls. If the chocolate is too hard, only small shavings will emerge. In this case leave at room temperature for a minute or two and repeat. Place caraques directly in the freezer. Sprinkle on to cake after 10-20 minutes.
