A couple of times a month I do a big online shop from Morrisons. I fancied some cherries, and in my search, a bag of frozen pitted cherries popped up for what seemed like a good price. I know cherries are good for you, but they’re also my favourite fruit. I also knew I didn’t want to sit and eat a big bag of frozen cherries, but I knew they’d be good to bake with, so I made plans for this chocolate and cherry traybake.
I’m a bit keen on the 1970s style Black Forest Gateaux. I’m also quite lazy, so in a slight homage to the original and best, I topped my chocolate and cherry traybake with swirls of Chantilly cream. It’s pretty simple to make, and the cake is actually better eaten a day or after you’ve baked it, as the flavours really develop over time. If you can bear to keep your hands off it for 48 hours, it’s worth wrapping up and keeping safe until you’re ready to put a too generous amount of cream on top.
It was most definitely a really simple, but equally delicious bake, and one I’ll be returning to again and again. Those frozen cherries worked really well, and they’re useful to have at hand to sate those Black Forest cravings which anyone brought up in the 80s has occasionally.
Chocolate and Cherry Traybake
Ingredients:
150g butter or baking margarine
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 medium eggs
1 teaspoon of coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon of milk
50g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g self-raising flour
300g bag of frozen pitted cherries
For the Chantilly cream –
300mls double cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 dessert spoons of sifted icing sugar
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees and line a suitable baking tin. I used a 10×8 inch brownie tin.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale, light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat again until airy. Add the coffee and milk mixture and stir through.
Carefully tip in the cocoa powder, baking powder and self raising flour (you can sift these in if you prefer) and mix until it’s well combined. Tip in your frozen cherries and stir through. Pour into your lined baking tin, smooth the top a little and then bake in the oven for 30 minutes, though I’d check it after 25 minutes.
My oven is old and grumpy, so I like to turn it off and leave the cake in the cooling oven for an extra five minutes. But that’s just a weird quirk I’ve developed while I’ve been getting to know my oven. I just find it doesn’t shock the cake, coming from a hit oven to a much cooler kitchen worktop.
Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack. You’re going to pile a load of cream on top of it, so it needs to be fully cool before you can do this. Leaving it covered in a clean tea towel overnight is a good plan, or pop it in the fridge for an hour to chill it, so when you do pile the cream on top, it doesn’t slide off the warm cake.
I chose to slice my traybake into equal sized pieces, but you can keep it whole if you prefer. I knew I wanted to wrap some up to give to some neighbours, so it was easier for me to cut and decorate them individually. To ensure I cut the same sized pieces, I measured the cake and decided it should be cut into nine squares. So I measured and divided the width of the cake into three and cut, and did the same with the length of the cake. They ended up being nice, generous squares of cake, but you should cut them as big or small as you’d like.
To make the Chantilly cream, pour your double cream, the sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract to a suitable bowl and whisk until you get stiff peaks. Depending on how fancy you’re feeling, you could either smooth a layer of the cream all over the top of the traybake, or you could pipe it on in dainty swirls. If you want a third option, pop the cream in a tub and serve the slices of cake with a dollop of the cream on the side.
I piped the Chantilly cream on each square, and grated a little dark chocolate over the top, just to make it look a bit fancy, and look fancy it did. It stored really well in a large plastic tub in the fridge, but once you top with the cream, it’ll need keeping in the fridge and eating within 48 hours. Thankfully, my teenager arrived home just in time, and helpfully polished off several slices before it even had chance for the cream to turn.
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