Fresh Cherry and Chocolate cake

So, my brother had brought a lot of cherries for us from some place he went to, and as you all know that my husband is not much fond of picking up and eating fresh fruits by his own, I decided to make a fresh cherry and chocolate cake which he loved. Make a note any try this at home to serve your cravings.

Ingredients:

Cake:

All-purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup (measuring cups) 

Butter or Ghee- 1/3 cup
Sugar- 1 cup
Baking powder- 1 tbsp.
Cocoa Powder- 2 tbsp.
Eggs- 3
Milk: ½ cup
Cherries (remove the seeds and cut them in half)- 1 cup

Buttercream:

Heavy Cream (I used non- dairy whipping cream) - A scoop
Cherries Finely chopped- ½ cup

For the Cake:

Sift together the All-purpose flour, Baking powder and cocoa power three to four times, I usually do this so that all the ingredients mix together really well and keep aside. In a large bowl, mix butter or ghee and sugar together with an electronic blender or mixer. Once the sugar is nearly dissolved in the butter, add eggs one by one and mix. To this, add the sifted mixture of the flour slowly. Make sure that you use the cut and fold technique (mix in one direction) so that there are no lumps or air bubbles formed. If the batter becomes hard, add milk to it and mix again. I used an electronic blender to mix everything together, you can use a spatula if you don’t have one.

Once the batter is ready, mix ¾ of the cherries in it and mix again. If the cherries are a little wet, put them on a tissue paper for a while. You can use a silicon mold for a microwave setting or an aluminum mold for a Gas Tandoor. I used a gas tandoor and set the flame to medium for 15 minutes before putting in the batter. You can glaze the mold and put blotting paper around before putting in the mixture for easy demolding. Put the flame to sim for a perfect moist cake, it would take around 2 to 2 ½ hours for the cake to bake, you can always check with a knife (just put the knife straight inside and pull it back, if it comes clear that means the cake is ready). After ½ hour to 45 minutes, you can put the remaining cherries on the top of the batter so that they don’t drown in. Here, I have not done this because I wanted this to be a surprise from inside.

For the Buttercream:

I have used a non-dairy pack of whipping cream from a cake store nearby. You can simply whip together heavy cream and sugar to form soft peaks. Add cherries and mix the cream. A slight pink color will come to the butter cream because of the cherries.

QUICK TIP:  Fill up only 20% of the utensil you are using for whipping as the cream will rise.

After the cake is fully baked, demold it and cut it into 2 pieces horizontally from the middle. Apply a thick layer of the buttercream on one part of the cake and place the other half on it.

Now, with a spatula cover the whole cake with the remaining buttercream. Sprinkle some chocolate chips and top with some fresh cherries before serving.

Enjoy and stay happy :)