Dan Beasley-Harling

Why it earned the handshake

This is a Black Forest gâteau made to behave like an everyday traybake: cocoa and espresso deepen the sponge, fresh cherries keep it bright, and kirsch brings the familiar grown-up note. The little chocolate decorations are optional in spirit but lovely in practice. The tent may reward drama; Dan’s slice wins by making the drama easy to share.

Ingredients

Sponge

• 175g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 5ml espresso powder
• 5ml baking powder
• 175g unsalted butter
• 200g light brown sugar
• 5ml vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 200g cherries, pitted and quartered
• 25g 70% dark chocolate, finely grated
• 16 cherries in kirsch, drained

Decoration, Chantilly, and syrup

• 75g 54% dark chocolate
• 1g pure cocoa-butter powder
• 300ml double/heavy cream
• 50g confectioners’ sugar
• 5ml vanilla bean paste
• 30ml superfine/caster sugar
• 30ml kirsch

You will also need a 25cm square pan, a thermometer, piping bags, and acetate or parchment.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Grease and line the square pan. Sift the flour, cocoa, espresso, and baking powder together.
2. Beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture and then the quartered cherries.
3. Level the batter in the pan and bake for 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a rack.
4. Temper the 75g chocolate: melt it over simmering water to 45°C, cool to 34°C, then stir in the cocoa-butter powder and bring it to 31°C. Pipe 16 small decorations onto acetate or parchment and leave them to set for at least 30 minutes.
5. Whip the cream with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until it holds a soft peak. Chill it. Warm the caster sugar and kirsch gently until the sugar dissolves, then cool the syrup.
6. Pierce the cooled cake with a cocktail stick and brush it with the kirsch syrup. Reserve one third of the Chantilly in a star-nozzle piping bag. Turn the cake top-side down, spread the rest of the cream over it, grate the 25g chocolate over the cream, and cut into 16 squares.
7. Pipe a swirl of cream onto each square. Finish each with a kirsch-soaked cherry and a chocolate decoration.

Baker’s tips

• Cool the cake completely before brushing on syrup; a warm crumb can turn the neat traybake soggy.
• Tempered chocolate is a concentration exercise. If the temperatures feel like too much, use melted chocolate decorations and call them rustic rather than pretending they are tempered.
• Keep the Chantilly cold until the last minute, especially in a warm kitchen.

Make-ahead

Bake the sponge and make the chocolate pieces a day ahead. Assemble with cream and cherries close to serving.