Sinful Chocolate Cherry Cake: Devil’s Food Mini Layer Cake with Cherry Buttercream and Cherry Filling

This is  a chocolate cherry cake, its a 4 layer mini (4.5′) devil’s food cake with cherry buttercream frosting and a cherry-brandy compote, doused with dark chocolate drip and garnished with some fresh cherries…

Ingredients:
Cherry-Brandy Compote: 

• Cherries (pitted) – 250gm
• Brandy – 60ml
• Sugar – 50 gm
• Water – 30ml
• Cornflour – 1 teaspoon

Devil’s Food Cake:

• Flour – 180gm
• Dark brown sugar – 150gm
• Butter – 150gm
• Eggs – 3 large
• Cocoa powder – 60gm
• Expresso – 125ml 
• Boiling Water – 100ml 
• Baking powder – 1teaspoon
• Baking soda -1 teaspoon
• Vanilla – 1 teaspoon 

Cherry Buttercream 

• Cherry Compote – 3 tablespoons
• Butter – 80 gm 
• Icing sugar – 200gm

Dark Chocolate Drip

• Dark Chocolate (chopped) – 50gm
• Butter – 25gm 
• Cherries to garnish

Method:
Cherry- Brandy Compote:

• Pit the cherries.
•  In a heavy bottom pan, add the cherries, sugar, water and brandy and cook. 
• Add the cornflour and cook until it thickens slightly. 
• Clean and dry a glass jar, add the cooked cherries. 
• Once cooled, refrigerate. 

Devil’s Food Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and line the baking tin with parchment sheet. 
• In a small bowl, add the boiling water and cocoa and mix into a paste. 
• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale, fluffy and smooth. 
• Beat in one egg at a time. Add vanilla.
• Add the cocoa mixture and expresso to the butter-sugar-egg mixture. 
• Sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
• Mix thoroughly until completely incorporated. 
• Divide and pour the batter into the baking tins.
• Bake for about 15-20 minutes, check from about 18 minutes. 
• Check to see if completely baked by poking the cake with a wooden skewer.
• Once baked, let it cool on a cooling rack. 

Cherry Buttercream Frosting:

• Blitz 3 tablespoons of cherry-brandy compote, until almost fine. 
• In a bowl, cream the butter until pale and fluffy. 
• Mix the blitzed cherry in the butter. 
• Add the icing sugar in batches and whip until the required consistency. 

Assembling the Cake:

• Slice the tops of the cake, so they are all of uniform thickness. 
• Place a small dollop of cherry buttercream on a cake board. 
• Place the bottom most cake layer on the dollop of cherry buttercream.
• Pipe the cherry buttercream along the edges of the cake layer, like a circle. 
• Brush the kirsch (liquid from the cherry -brandy compote) on to the center of the cake layer. 
• Spoon in the cherry pieces from the compote. 
• Place a second layer of cake on top of the layer and repeat until all the layers are complete. 
• Smoothen the sides of the cake with buttercream (I wanted to make a naked cake). You can also frost the cake with a thin layer of buttercream as a crumb coat. 
• Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to a hour. 

Dark Chocolate Drip:

• In a heavy bottomed pan, add the chopped chocolate and butter. 
• Heat it on a low, let the butter melt and mix with the chocolate. 
• Let the chocolate come to about room temperature. 

Final Assembly of the Cake:

• Pour the melted chocolate on the cooled cake. 
• Cool the cake for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. 
• Pipe small blobs of buttercream on the cake.
• Place fresh cherries on the blobs of buttercream. 
• Serve with a large cup of tea…. 

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