I’m so excited that it’s the return of the Great Bloggers Bake Off! Jenny over at Mummy Mishaps did a wonderful job of hosting last year but this year she is handing the reins over to some other bloggers to guest host too and one of them will be me in a few weeks, eek! I’m very determined to add to my badge from last year for my salted caramel & chocolate tart, but we shall see. 😉 So the first week of the Great British Bake Off was cake week as per usual, and I was absolutely drooling over the black forest bakes, so that is what I was going to make! I decided to go for a black forest take on cheesecake but this one has a twist; the base is actually a delicious chocolate sponge with kirsch soaked cherries dotted through. The filling is gorgeously creamy with lots more cherries – if you wanted to make a child friendly version you could just use tinned cherries! The base is best prepared the day before so it has time to chill.

Ingredients (serves 8)

Cake base

Topping

Method

• Preheat oven to gas 5/375F/190C and grease an 8 inch round (fairly deep) removable base cake tin.
• In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar until soft & pale.
• Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and eggs and mix until well combined and a fluffy texture.
• Gently stir in the cherries.
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake for around 18-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Leave the cake to cool and then pop in the fridge (still in the tin!) for a few hours, or overnight.
• In a large bowl whip the cream until thick.
• With a spoon, fold in the cream cheese and the caster sugar until well combined.
• Mix in the cherries until well dispersed.
• Pour the cream mixture over the cake base and spread evenly on top then sprinkle all over with dark chocolate curls.
• Chill until ready to serve then just before serving, pile some cherries in the middle.
• Enjoy!