By Cristina Rodríguez Corujo 1ºDBy Cristina Rodríguez Corujo 1ºD

Flour - 2 cups Sugar - 1 1/2 cups Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup, unsweetened Baking soda - 1 1/2 Baking powder – 1 Salt - pinch Milk - 1 cup Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Instant coffee powder - 1 1/2 Hot water - 1 cup Eggs - 2 For layering: Whipping cream - 2 cups Tinned cherries - 1 tin Chocolate - 1/2 cup, grated or chocolate shards to decorate

Ingredients :

-First preheat oven to 175 degrees Centigrade.

- Add instant coffee powder to the hot water and keep aside.

Two first steps

- In a large bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar and mix well with the dry ingredients. - Make a well in the center and add the milk, oil, vanilla essence and beaten eggs and mix. Finally add the hot coffee mixture and mix. Do not over mix.

3rd and 4th steps

- Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pans and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 40 mgs or until a skewer comes out clean. Start checking from 35 mgs onwards.- Cool on a wire rack for 30 mts before inverting onto a wire rack. Bring to room temperature. If the cake has a dome shape, use a serrated knife and slice the dome off and level the cake till it has a flat top.

5th and 6th steps

- While the cake is cooling, prepare the whipping cream. Place a very large bowl and beaters in the freezer for 15 mts before beating the whipping cream.- Place ice cubes in a plate. Place the cold bowl on the ice cubes and pour two cups of whipping cream in the bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form, approx 5-6 mts. Place the whipped cream in the fridge till you start assembling the cake.

7th and 8th steps

- Open the tinned cherries and drain the liquid (cherry syrup). Measure 1 cup of syrup and add 3 tbsps powdered sugar and mix. This is to reduce the tartness of the cherry syrup. - Pit 1 cup of cherries, chop into small pieces and keep aside. Reserve 1/4 cup of whole cherries for decoration.

9th and 10th steps

To assemble the cake:-On a turntable, place a cake board that has been lined with shiny silver or gold paper. Invert the cake and place it upside down on top of the cake base so that the cake has a flat top.

- Drizzle 5 to 6 tbsps of cherry syrup or sugar syrup over the cake layer covering the entire cake. Do not drizzle too much syrup as the cake might get soggy

11th and 12th steps

13th and 14th steps

-Using a spatula spread a cup of whipped cream. Leave a gap of 1" along the edge of the cake. It should be a thick layer. Over the layer spread some of the chopped cherries.

- Place another l cherry syrup, whipped cream layer of inverted cake over the first layer and repeat the same process with and chopped cherries.

- Finally place the inverted cake layer with the

flat top and drizzle with cherry syrup all over and spread a thin layer of whipped cream on top and along the sides of the cake.

- Use a cake comb along the sides and create a comb effect all around the cake. Place the cake in the fridge for at least 2 to 3 hours at this stage.

15th and 16th steps

- Place the remaining whipped cream in a piping bag with a star tip and place in fridge. At the time of serving, remove the cake from the fridge and pipe stars along the top edge of the cake and at the base of the cake as shown in the picture above. - Place a cherry on top of each piped out star and sprinkle grated chocolate. You can also place chocolate shards along the sides. You can decorate as your fancy.

17th and 18th steps

- Place the cake in the fridge for at least another hour and serve. If you are rushed for time, you can go ahead and serve the cake

- And the cake is ready !!!!

And the last step

This is a Black Forest Cake If you do all the steps right this is the final result.

Enjoy your piece of cake It looks great!!!