Sweet- Cakes - Black Forest Cake

I'm not even gonna try to sell you on this; it's just damn delicious. So chocolaty and moist...I really need to make this again!

Ingredients:
*This will make TWO cakes.

Devil's Food Cake:
470 g sugar
160 g butter (softened)
5 g salt
5 g vanilla extract
320 g pastry flour
90 g cocoa powder
40 g whole milk powder
10 g baking powder
5 g baking soda
320 ml water
250 g (5) whole eggs, room temp

Topping:
1 L whipping cream
500 ml whip topping (sweetened cream)
Brandy (simple) syrup - equal parts sugar and water, melted. Then add cherry brandy for more yum.
500 g cherry pie filling (roughly 10 parts cherries + 3 parts sugar + 1 part cornstarch, boiled then cooled)
chocolate sprinkles & shavings

To Make:

The whole cake will take about 2 hrs to make. First make the devil's food cake by following these instructions. This will take about 1 hour to finish. Once done, place cakes in freezer to cool, and make the frosting.

To do so, first whip the 1 L of whipping cream on high for about 3 minutes, until soft peaks form. Then do the same for the whip topping (if you have it), and when finished combine the two together to get a pretty pro-tasting whipped cream. Put some of it into a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and set aside.

Make the syrup by melting equal portions sugar and water (heating until sugar is dissolved) and then adding cherry brandy to taste - a few tablespoons.

You can use regular canned cherry pie filling, or make your own using the relative portions given above; roughly for 3-4 cups of cherries, add 1 cup of sugar and about 1/4-1/3 cup of cornstarch (it really depends on the taste and texture you're going for.) Boil these for a bit to get that jelly texture, and then cool down.

Finally, you can make your own chocolate shavings by running a straight-edged knife over the top of a block of chocolate, making sure you add even pressure throughout as you push from yourself outwards. Collect the shavings with your knife (try not to touch them very much as they'll very easily melt from your hand temperature).

Check on the cake after about 30 minutes. If it feels cool to the touch take out and cut the cake into 3 layers (first cut the top off right at the "seam" formed from the baking pan. You do this by running your knife all the way around the edge first, and then going straight through.) The top layer you can set aside because it's likely domed. Cut the rest of the cake into 2 equal portions though (or 3 if it's tall enough for it, you want each layer to be about 1 inch thick), and lay them each out in front of you.

Take the bottom layer and flip it over so the smooth surface is on top. That's gonna be the "face" of your cake. Drizzle the syrup on each layer with a brush, then take the whipped cream piping bag and outline the edge of the bottom layer with whipped cream. Fill the bottom layer with the cherry filling, and add the next level on top. If you have 3 layers in total, then repeat the whipped cream/cherry filling step for the middle layer. Otherwise, it's time to mask your cake!

Have the bowl of whipped cream ready at your side, and if possible use a cake turntable. Dollop out whipped cream to the top and sides of the cake and use a pallet knife to smooth it out (first top, then sides, then top again). Finally you can use chocolate sprinkles (or shavings) to decorate the sides of the cake, and pipe rosettes on top and adorn with cherries and more chocolate shavings.

Make sure to keep the chocolate shavings and whipped cream at a cool temperature when not using them. That's about it though, it's not a very hard recipe to follow, but the outcome is phenomenal!