Easy Vegan Black Forest Cake

For my husband's birthday this year I made him a black forest cake to take into work.
Using my Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe (and doubling it), combined with my easy Cherry Sauce recipe you have a delicious Vegan, lower fat version of this decadent German dessert.
I added whipped cream to cover it - which of course you can skip if if you are sticking to a vegan diet.

I am pretty darn pleased at how it turned out and it was a hit at my husband's office!


What You'll Need: Vegan Chocolate Cake

• 2 round cake pans 
• 1 large bowl, 1 small bowl
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cups granulated sugar (I used Ideal instead)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder (I use the extra dark kind that is virtually sugar-free)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp vinegar (plain, not cider or rice, etc)
• 2 cups room temperature water

What You'll Need: Easy Cherry Sauce

• Heavy-bottomed sauce pan
• 2 cups of seedless frozen cherries
• 1/3 cup of sugar (I used Ideal, a xylitol-based sweetener instead)
• 2/3 cup water and 1/4 cup of water
• 2 Tbps cornstarch
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

What You'll Need: Whipped Cream Topping

• Electric mixer or hand mixer
• 1 large container of whipping cream
• 1/3 cup of sugar (I used xylitol-based Ideal sweetener)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Now you have assembled everything you need - let's get baking!

What You'll Do: Vegan Chocolate Cake

• Pre-heat your oven
• Lightly grease your baking pans
• In your large bowl sift your flour, sugars, cocoa, baking soda and salt together until fully combined
• In your small bowl pour in your oil, vanilla, vinegar then water
• Quickly whisk up until combined and bubbly
• Pour your liquid mixture into your flour mixture and stir until smooth
• Pour half of the batter into each of your baking pans
• Depending on the depth of your pans, cooking times vary. For me it took around 25 minutes. I could tell it was done when the centre was no longer wiggly when moved about and when I could stick in a toothpick and it came out 'clean' (not gooey)
• Let cool completely before removing from your pans

What You'll Do: Easy Cherry Sauce

• Ensure your cherries are pitted
• Place your thawed berries into your saucepan
• Pour in 2/3 cups of water
• Stir until boiling
• In a small measuring cup, pour in your 1/4 cup of water and stir in your cornstarch
• Pour your cornstarch and water mixture into the boiling cherries
• Stir rapidly as the sauce will thicken instantly
• Pour in your lemon juice
• Reduce the heat and stir for another 2-3 minutes or until desired thickness is achieved
• Let cool

What You'll Do: Whipped Cream Topping

• Using your electric mixer, pour the whipping cream into your bowl
• As your are whipping, pour in your sugar, cinnamon and vanilla
• Whip until you have very stiff peaks. As this will be used as an 'icing' for your cake, you do not want this to be runny
• Chill in the fridge until your cakes are prepared

What You'll Do: Assembly!

• Once your two cakes are completely cooled, use a large knife and gently cut each cake in half, horizontally
• Gently remove the top half and turn upside down, so the top is now resting on your counter
• Stir your cheery sauce until it has loosened up a bit, as it may have become quite gelatinous as it cooled
• Using a flat back spoon, portion out the cherry sauce and place one dollop at a time onto one side of the split cake

• Make sure cherry sauce covers the complete half and then, gently, take the other half of the cake and place it back onto its partner, 'top' side up
• Repeat this with the other baked cake
• You will now have two cakes with cherry middles. You are not done yet! Using the remainder of your cherry sauce, cover the top of one of the cakes completely then place the other cake on top - you will now have three layers of cherry sauce to four layers of cake

• Now - take your whipped cream and smooth all over the cake until completely covered
• Then, as a final touch and something I know Martha would do, I grated dark chocolate over top
• That is it - your delicious, moist, chocolatey Black Forest cake is all ready to be eaten! Enjoy!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2 (you can also pimp your cake out and add some whole cherries on the top, or even another layer of cherry sauce if you have extra)
Taste: 2
Ease: 1 (there are a lot of steps, this is not a fast cake to make as you must let it cool before you assemble it)