Cherry Chocolate Cake for my Dessert Soul Partner, Vibha

Celebrating a special birthday, my soul partner for desserts, Vibha. People dirty talk porn... we dirty talk D-e-s-s-e-r-t-s.... ;)

Her brief for this cake was Low Sugar, Chocolate, CHERRY for a party of 25 people. What I love about her is that she'll share her inputs and let me work with them and in most[that's me being modest... actually all] cases we hit a H-i-g-h N-o-t-e :)

Celebrations at her place always mean super-yummy-food, drastic drinks and fabulously fun filled times..... She had made a delicious Thai spread and her hubby fixed us our drinks[Oh yes, he ensured we were happy n high] Since I'm not driving these days due to my hurt foot, i could really pull out the plugs and have a blast :)

Cherry Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4

Sugar - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Flour - 1 1/2 cups

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 Teaspoon

Baking powder - 1/2 Teaspoon

Dark cocoa powder - 2 Tablespoon

Coffee Powder - 1 Tablespoon

Cinnamon - 1 Teaspoon freshly ground [2 teaspoons if used a packaged variety]

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Sift the dry ingredients and just mix together with a spoon to get an even mix.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar beat until creamy and light in colour.

4. Add vanilla extract and oil to the mixture.Mix to incorporate without loosing the fluff from the mixture.

5. Add the Flour, Baking powder, cocoa powder, coffee and cinnamon and incorporate with a light circular movement without losing the fluff. The color of the cocoa batter should be quite dark.

6. Pour in greased and floured the sides of the cake tin.

7. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes till the tester comes out clean

Assembly:

1. Slice the cake in half.

2. Brush both insides generously with brandy.

3. Spread the cherry preserve evenly.

4. Place the soaked cherries evenly arround the cake so that every slice would get some fruits in it.

5. Place the half back on the cake and refrigerate before decorating with ganache for atleast an hour.

Decoration with Chocolate Ganache:

1. While the cake is baking, put 200ml cream with the dark chocolate on simmer & continue to stir till the chocolate has melted. Take off from heat & allow to cool completely,[NEVER the freezer]. Give it a few stirs, this will thicken as it cools.

2. Spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cooled cake evenly. Refrigerate.

3. Use the white chocolate shavings to neaten the edges of the cake.

Tip: To moisten the cake you could pour come of the warm icing so that cake absorbs it and is moist without having resting time in the refrigerator.

We shared her Birthday with Ajita didi's mom..... The cake was Hogged :)))))))) She loved it...

That's Vibha's longtime friend from college , Hubby and kids
Verdict:

Vibha: Thank you my dear! The cake was simply the perfect one for me. really relished it! You made too much of an effort.

Your smile make it all the effort worthwhile, Dessert Soul Partner :)))))