You don’t have to be a guru to make a cake with two ingredients: chocolate and cherry. These products are so harmoniously combined with each other that when thinking about making a chocolate cake, cherry itself asks in addition to a favorite dessert.
How many improvisation options on the theme "Chocolate Cake with Cherry" can be created depends on the imagination and knowledge of the basics of confectionery. If you have inspiration, you must definitely give it a go. We set off to the kitchen, boldly get down to work.
Chocolate cake with cherry - basic technological principles
Almost any cake will need flour, sugar, eggs, fresh butter, milk or cream. These products should be fresh, of the highest quality - the successful result of one and a half or even three-hour work in the kitchen largely depends on these criteria. A must-have touch for any confectionery “work” is vanilla or other flavors, which every hostess will surely find. In addition to vanilla, for chocolate and cherry, we choose the aroma of citruses, cognac or rum, almonds: this is a classic.
The list of ingredients can be expanded based on the author’s plan and available stocks, but the products already listed are enough to prepare shortbread, biscuit, airy, puff pastry for shortcakes, as well as creamy, butter, custard and protein cream to connect the base of the cake. Of the four types of dough and the same number of cream preparation options, it is already possible to make at least ten recipes, relying on your own taste and experience in conducting such experiments. Choose options, starting with the simplest, and gradually complicate the task. The confectioner should not be allowed to overtake the confectioner in the midst of the work: making the cake is not a very complicated process, but every step is important in it. If not enough time and attention will be paid to one of the technological aspects, then all work will be spoiled along with mood and self-esteem.
These are the steps:
Dough preparation;
Baking cakes;
Preparation of cream, glaze, fudge, decoration elements;
Mixing the cake (impregnation of cakes, assembly, smearing with cream, applying fudge or glaze);
Surface decoration.
If you are undertaking work for the first time, divide it into parts, calculate forces and time.
Prepared in advance inventory, fixtures, tools - also one of the components of success. For an amateur pastry chef, it is enough to have a minimal set of tools. If you like to bake cakes and do this often, then, in addition to the usual equipment that every housewife has in the kitchen, it is advisable to purchase:
baking dishes of different diameters and configurations;
Confectionery bags on a polyethylene basis (5-6 pcs.);
Metal nozzles with different sections for drawing with cream: a conical straight line, star-shaped, for drawing leaves and petals. When you master the work with a minimal set, it will be possible to add other nozzles to the set to expand the possibilities for more complex drawings;
Stand for cake on a rotating leg, which will facilitate the work during design;
Cutter for evenly slicing cakes;
Spatula for smoothing the cream surface.
This necessary minimum for pastry work is also useful for preparing and decorating other dishes, which can be easily verified in the near future.
Let’s try, approximately, to sketch out a few variations of the chocolate-cherry cake, without having to do a long search for some new and unusual recipe. If you leave cherry and chocolate as the basis for making cakes, glaze, cream or jewelry, then there is still plenty of room for creativity.
For example, you can experiment in this direction:
Chocolate sponge cake with cherry cream;
Chocolate glaze with airy dough and cherry cream;
Chocolate shortcrust pastry for cake and cherry jam with protein or butter cream;
Curd-chocolate base with cherry jelly cream.
In any of the proposed improvisations you don’t have to blush for your own masterpiece - cherries and chocolate attract the attention of taste buds so much that only the most demanding professionals and gourmets can see the rest of the cake.
1. Chocolate cake with cherry - "Greetings from Prostokvashino!"
The good news: the complexity of making this cake is low, even a beginner can handle this recipe.
Ingredients:
Extra butter 240 g
Homemade whole milk curd 400 g
Milk 275 ml
Cooking cream (33%) to decorate 100 g
Gelatin 25 g
Sugar 120 g (for cottage cheese soufflé) + 350 g (for cherry jelly)
Water 200 ml
Vanillin, crystalline 8 g
Seedless Cherry 500 g
Orange syrup 100 ml
Rum essence 20 mg
Agar Agar 5 g
Chocolate 150 g
Shortbread Cookies 300 g
Slices of fresh oranges, cherry for a cocktail, fresh mint or lemon balm leaves - for decor
Cooking Technology:
You don’t have to bake anything, but for the cake you will need 2 split molds, with a diameter of 28 cm
Put the prepared shortbread cookies in a bowl, chop it into crumbs and pour the orange syrup, 150 ml, cooled to room temperature, boiled milk, 5 mg of essence, add 100 g of softened butter. Interrupt the mass with a blender and, shifting to the bottom of the mold, smooth the surface with a spatula or spatula.
Cream Souffle:
Put cottage cheese, 100 g butter, vanilla powder (4 g), 5 mg of rum extract, sugar in a blender bowl. Turn on the blender at maximum power and whip the cream. Dissolve gelatin in 100 ml of milk, strain and pour in a thin stream into the cream-cheese mass.
Transfer half the curd souffle to a layer of cookies, and put the second part to solidify in another shape, without a base. Put both blanks in the refrigerator.
Pour water into a non-stick dish, put 350 g of sugar. Boil the syrup, removing the foam. When it becomes transparent, add the cherry. Boil again by removing the foam. Add agar-agar, let the jelly cool to 40 ° C. Dividing the cherry jelly in half, pour it into forms on top of the souffle. Remove again in the cold until completely solidified.
Remove both cooked convenience foods from the molds. The first, on a sand base, lay on a stand. Sprinkle a layer of jelly in the lower half with rum essence water, immediately place the upper part so that it sticks better to the wetted surface.
Start decorating. Use a pastry bag and a nozzle to decorate the sides and sides of the cake with whipped cream bows. Symmetrically place cherries for a cocktail, slices of oranges, leaves of fresh herbs on the surface.
Draw butterflies on parchment paper. Put the sheet on a metal tray, pre-freezing it so that the pattern of melted chocolate lay down strictly along the contour, without spreading. Pour melted chocolate from a thin cone nozzle according to the drawing. Take away for five minutes in the cold. After carefully remove the chocolate patterns with a blade and lay them on the cake.
Cake - eat, cherry and chocolate are present. Enjoy your meal!
2. Shortcake chocolate cake with cherry and protein cream
Ingredients:
Cocoa 40 g
Flour 260 g
Margarine 140 g
Sugar 100 g
Yolks 2 pcs.
Lemon zest, fresh 25 g
Saffron 2 g
Cherry jam 250 g
Candied fruits (for decoration)
For protein cream:
Squirrels 2 pcs.
Powder 60 g
Lemon juice 10 ml
For custard:
Flour 25 g
Cocoa 50 g
Sugar
2 eggs
Sugar 120 g
Oil 240 g
Vanilla 4 g
Rum (dessert wine) 75 ml
Food colorings
Fruit essence
Cooking:
Sift flour and dough in half, adding sifted cocoa with vanilla powder in one part and boiled in boiling water, saffron and fresh lemon zest in the other. Sugar, yolks and margarine are also divided into two parts. Knead two types of dough, divide each of them into 3 parts. Roll each part in a square with a side of 26 cm. The thickness of each layer is not more than 0.5 cm, since when baking the dough will rise.
Try to roll out the dough quickly so that the fat does not have time to melt. It is better to take it out of the refrigerator as each cake is ready, roll it out and immediately send it on a baking sheet to an oven preheated to a moderate temperature. On each cake, before baking, make small notches with a knife or pierce them with a fork. For quick cooking, it is advisable to work with two baking sheets. Do not rush to remove the cake from the hot pan. Give each cake time to cool. Shoot with a long and wide spatula.
Chocolate custard:
Beat eggs with sugar. Pour hot (90-95оС) milk into them in a thin stream without interrupting intensive mixing. Combine the flour with cocoa powder and sift the mixture into a hot mass. Beat whisk until smooth. Put the dishes with cream in a water bath and cook until they are completely thickened. Add vanilla and rum, remove from the stove. To quickly cool the mass, you can move the dishes to another container filled with ice, continue whipping. When the custard has completely cooled, add softened butter in slices, continue to whip the cream until tender.
Already you can collect the cake by half. Lubricate the cooled cakes with cherry jam. On top of the jam, apply a layer of chocolate cream. Lay the layers on top of each other, alternating chocolate and lemon cakes with saffron to each other.
Protein Cream:
Pour chilled proteins into a dry and clean bowl and beat them at high speed. When the foam becomes stable, add 30 ml of lemon juice mixed with fruit essence or vanilla powder (to taste), pour in a little sifted powder.
Decorate the finished cake with protein cream, depositing it on the surface and sides of the cake. Top off the protein cream with powder and cocoa, dividing the surface of the cake with a diagonal line. Put candied fruit on the border. For decor, you can use food colors, curly pieces of colored marmalade.
3. Chocolate cake with cherry cream on a biscuit basis
Ingredients:
Fresh eggs (D-1) 4 pcs.
Sugar 125 g
Flour 140 g
Cocoa 25 g
Vanilla sugar
Cream, cherry:
Yolks 6 pcs.
Sugar 250 g
Seedless Cherry 150 g
Cream 33% 200 ml
Gelatin 20 g
Chocolate icing, white:
White chocolate (with natural cocoa butter) 250 g
Cream, confectionery 75 ml
Powder 120 g
Vanilla powder
Rum (or Amaretto) 50 ml
For decor:
Cherry marmalade or jelly
Chocolate chips or medallions (milk or black)
Sugar icing “hearts”, red
Cooking:
Turn on the oven and preheat it to 180 ° C. Prepare a round split mold (28 cm), grease it with oil and proceed to prepare the biscuit dough.
Separate the whites from the yolks. If you have two mixers, you can save time by whipping the proteins in a stationary mixer, and yolks with sugar - by hand. Combine the flour with cocoa, sift, add to the yolk mass. To it add flavorings: vanilla or fruit essence to taste. In the finished dough, carefully transfer the whipped whites to a stable foam. Stir the mass with a spatula, trying not to destroy the air bubbles, immediately shift the dough into the mold, filling it in? parts of the volume. Bake a biscuit. The first 20 minutes do not open the oven. You can check the readiness of the biscuit no earlier than after 25-30 minutes. Remove the finished biscuit from the oven and place on the wire rack until completely cooled. It can only be removed from the mold when it is cold. After 5-6 hours, the biscuit can be cut into 2 layers of the same thickness, in a horizontal line.
Put one cake in the mold again.
Make cherry cream:
Kill the pitted cherries with a blender. Warm the cream and pour in the yolks whipped with sugar. Pour in a thin stream while stirring the contents of the pan with a whisk, very quickly. Immediately add the cherry puree to the thickened mass. Cook for 7-10 minutes, stirring continuously. For reliability, so that the cream does not burn, and to evenly warm up, use the cooking method in a water bath. Cool the cream to 25-30 ° C, introduce dissolved gelatin (20 g per 150 ml of warm water). Beat the mass until smooth and pour onto the biscuit cake in the mold. Move the mold to cold to set. As soon as the cream is thickened, put the next cake, grease with cherry jam.
Make white chocolate icing:
Melt the white chocolate, after grinding it into crumbs and heating the cream to 40-45 ° C. Add the powder, flavor, rum and whip the mass.
Remove the cake from the mold, transfer it to the stand and fill it with white chocolate icing. When the surface hardens, decorate with dark chocolate and colored sugar glaze. Decorate the side with slices of transparent jelly.
4. Chocolate cake with student's cherry
Ingredients:
Chocolate cream (dry mix) 300 g
2 eggs
Flour 150 g
Sour cream (kefir, yogurt) 250 ml
Soda 15 g
Sugar 100 g
Vinegar 50 ml
Flavor - to taste
Cocoa (100%) 30 g
Cherry Jam 400 g
Milk chocolate 2 tiles 100 g each
Oil 70 g
Cooking Technology:
Such a cake is an inexpensive option and very quick to prepare.
Combine the dry mixture with sifted flour, sugar, vanilla powder and cocoa. Beat eggs, add sour cream, soda, quenched with vinegar. Knead the dough. Consistency is like a pancake.
Grease a baking dish with oil. Preheat the oven. Divide the dough into 5 parts. Pour a layer with a thickness of not more than 0.5 cm into the mold.
Grease the cooled cakes with cherry jam (the cherry should be seedless).
Melt the chocolate by adding butter, whisk. It should be glossy. Beat with a whisk. For shine, add dessert wine or brandy, not more than a tablespoon. Pour the cake with a warm chocolate mass. Let it brew for 3-4 hours.
5. Chocolate cake with cherry "Caprice"
Ingredients:
Air hazelnut dough:
Proteins 250 g (5-6 pcs.)
Almonds (kernels) 280 g
Flour 70 g
Sugar 120 g
Vanilla powder - to taste
Cherry extract or liquor
Cream Souffle:
Yolks 5 pcs.
Orange (zest) 50 g
Sugar 200 g
Oil 80 g
Milk (or drinking cream) 100 ml
Rum or brandy extract 5 mg
Gelatin 11 g
Champagne Cherry Jelly:
Fresh cherry juice 100 ml
Champagne 150 ml
Cherries or other berries (for decoration) 50-70 g
Agar agar 4 g
Sugar 180 g
Pastry cream 100 g
Chocolate 80 g
Candied fruits, coconut - for decoration
Technology:
Who is not ready for the tests - reduce the process of making cakes by buying 500-600 g of ready-made meringues: it will also turn out to be an interesting option, whipped up. For those who decide not to give up, let's start with a description of the technology for preparing the almond dough.
Almond cakes.
First cook the molds and the oven. For quick cooking, take 3 identical shapes, or one large sheet on which three cakes can fit. Otherwise, all the ingredients for the preparation of the dough will have to be divided into three parts, and cook them as each cake is cooked. On the parchment sheet, draw 3 circles, on the back, smear it with oil and line the bottom of the baking dish. In the oven, set the temperature to 120 ° C.
Almonds (can be replaced with other nuts if desired) need to be crushed into flour so that oil does not start to stand out. Of course, it’s convenient to do this in a harvester, kill with a blender, but it’s better to chop and grind in a mortar, gradually adding the sifted flour.Nuts must first be cleaned and dried in the oven or in a hot dry frying pan. Add flavors to the nut mass.
Beat the proteins, as usual, until a firm foam with subtle air bubbles forms. When whipping the protein mass, gradually add sugar. Combine with walnut flour. Put the dough in a pastry bag and put it into the molds according to the drawn outline. The dough layer should not be thicker than one centimeter. After baking, the cakes will increase in volume by 2 times.
If the oven is not equipped with a fan, then after about 20 minutes, when a slight blush appears on the surface of the cakes, reduce the temperature by 20-25 ° C, and after 10 minutes - turn off the oven, open the door slightly, but do not let the semi-finished products cool down completely.
Ready cakes should dry within 10-12 hours. Then remove the parchment from them.
Cream soufflé "Bird's milk".
After working with a complex almond test, all the other steps will seem completely simple.
Kill the yolks with half the sugar. Boil milk with the second half of sugar for soufflé cream, add zest, vanilla or other flavoring to taste. Gently insert the yolks, cook while stirring with a whisk until thickened. Chill. Combine the resulting mass with softened oil. Dissolve gelatin in warm water, add it to the cream. Do not stop whipping all this time. The cream should increase in volume by 2.5-3 times.
In a detachable form for the cake, put the cake, and on it, half the cream. Top - the second cake, and lay out the rest of the cream. Cover it with a third cake mix.
Transfer the mold to cold for 1.5-2 hours. When hardens, put fruits or candied fruits on it.
Make cherry jelly. Boil half the sugar for jelly and cherry juice, add agar-agar, and when the jelly has cooled to 40 ° C, introduce chilled champagne. Immediately pour jelly on the surface of the cake and put it another hour and a half in the cold. After shift from the form to the stand and decorate the sides with whipped cream. Melt the chocolate, apply a grid over the jelly surface.
6. Chocolate cherry cake with butter cream and mirror glaze
Ingredients:
Sponge cake: see recipe number 3 (but without cocoa)
Butter cream:
Powder 90 g
Cocoa 50 g
Vanillin, crystalline 2 g
Cream (33%) 200 ml
For impregnation: cherry liqueur (or tincture + sugar + water)
For fruit glaze:
Fresh cherry juice 250 ml
Citric acid (for clarification of cherry juice) 10 g
Gelatin 10 g
Sugar 350 g
Eggs (D-1) 4 pcs.
Cream, confectionery 200 ml
Chocolate butterflies and cocktail cherries for decoration
Cooking:
Cut the finished chilled biscuit cake mix into layers no more than 1 cm thick, sprinkle each of them with cherry liqueur. Determine the amount of impregnation to taste, but remember that thin and too moist cake will be difficult to transfer, and a light cream from a large amount of moisture in the cake will quickly lose its splendor and spread out, draining on the side.
Make a creamy chocolate cream:
Mix the powder, vanillin (powder) and cocoa, sift.
Whip cream, pre-cooling them, gradually increasing speed, as they thicken.
Add the dry mixture at the end of whipping, sifting through a strainer so that it is evenly distributed over the surface of the cream.
Be careful not to interrupt the cream, so that the process of separation of serum does not begin.
The amount of powder and cocoa in the cream can be adjusted as desired - this will not affect the quality of whipping the cream, but do not make sure that the volume of dry components does not reach a critical mass and does not exceed the volume of cream.
Collect the cake by spreading each sponge cake with butter cream. Give him 1.5-2 hours to soak the layers, after which the cake must be moved to the freezer: in order to smoothly cover it with icing, a very chilled surface is needed.
Glaze preparation:
Filter fresh natural cherry juice (you can squeeze frozen cherry) and pour into a saucepan. Add sugar (250 g) and boil the syrup until “thick string”. Add citric acid at the end of cooking. Do not forget to remove the foam. Crystals may form on the sides of the dishes in which the syrup is boiled, so it must be boiled, be sure to cover it, and in order to be able to follow the process, use glass. Set the finished syrup briefly.
Add half the remaining sugar to the yolks and rub until white. Pour the whipped yolks into the syrup, heating the mass in the bath until thickened and, at the same time, not stopping the whipping. When the mass has thickened, remove it from the stove and continue whisking until it cools completely. At this time, it is more convenient to move the container into dishes filled with ice in order to speed up the process.
In a clean, dry and deep bowl, beat the chilled proteins with the remaining sugar. In a stable protein foam, without stopping beating, pour dissolved and filtered gelatin into a thin stream.
Separately, also in a clean bowl, whip the cream, combine them with the protein mass, and then, adding a little yolk mixture, mix the glaze with a spatula to a uniform consistency.
Move the cake on a stand mounted on a wide dish (the icing will drain). Cover with cooked glaze, move it to the refrigerator for half an hour. After the icing hardens a bit, decorate the surface with cherries and chocolate butterflies.
Chocolate Cake with Cherry - Useful Tips
The classic shortbread dough, without the addition of eggs and water, consists of one part sugar, two parts butter or margarine and three parts flour. Remember this proportion: 1: 2: 3. This is the basis of shortcrust pastry, where sugar and fat are wet (!) Ingredients, they are added in the same amount as flour. If you want to change something in the recipe for the perfect shortcrust pastry, strictly adhere to this proportion. If you want the dough to become chocolate, adding cocoa, reduce the flour content by exactly the same amount; adding eggs - reduce sugar and butter, in equal proportions. Shortbread dough will always be crumbly.
If you want to add eggs to the shortcrust pastry, it is better to use yolks. They will give the sand product a pleasant golden hue. Egg whites weight and tighten the shortcrust pastry. It is better to add them to unsweetened pastries, for too wet toppings to condense the dough.
