Black Forest Cake

Bri's birthday weekend was a lot of fun.  We spent Friday night together for dinner at Mary's Hamburgers and then rented Despicable Me 2 to watch afterwards.  It was a fun date-night!  On Saturday, we had dinner with his family at Caro Mio which was absolutely delicious and then had a fun night with friends.  And finally, the bday festivities continued on Sunday with dinner at Giordano's and then Black Forest Cake for dessert!

Bri loves the cherry-chocolate combination (not my favorite) and so it was the perfect dessert for his birthday.  Here's the thing though, although this is not my favorite, it was really good and so that is saying something.  It was a perfect cake and even looked pretty! Making desserts look attractive has never been my strong suit and I was really excited about how gorgeous this cake turned out.  This has been a great birthday celebration!

Black Forest Cake
(adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients:
For the Cake:
2 1/8 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla
For the Cherry Filling:
30 oz pitted sour cherries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 and 1/8 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the Frosting:
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 9 inch cake pans
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Beat in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Divide batter equally into the two pans and bake for 35 minutes.  Let cool completely.
3. To make the cherry filling, drain cherries and reserve 3/4 cup of cherry juice.  In a small saucepan, combine the cherry juice, cherries, cornstarch, and sugar.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  Stir in vanilla.  Let cool.
4. To make the frosting, beat the cream and sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Assemble the cake: using floss or a long knife, cut each cake down the middle to form four skinny cakes.  Three layers are for the cake, one is for the crumb topping.  Place bottom layer on a plate and top with a layer of whipped cream.  Spoon about half the cherry mixture over the whipped cream.  Place second cake layer on top and then repeat with the whipped cream and the rest of the cherry mixture.  Leave out a few cherries for decorating and place final cake layer on top.  Cover the rest of the cake with the whipped cream frosting.  Use crumbs from the last cake layer to cover the sides of the cake.  Pipe frosting along the top and bottom.  Finally, decorate the top with more crumbs and remaining cherries.

Enjoy :)