Chocolate cakes with cherry

This recipe will show you how to cook delicious chocolate cakes with cherries. These are very tender and moist.

The calculation is for 4 cakes with a diameter of 6 cm (2.3 inch).

Ingredients:

• Eggs 2 pcs | 2.00 items
• Brown sugar 90 g | 3.15 oz
• White sugar 25 g | 0.90 oz
• Flour 200 g | 7.05 oz
• Baking powder 5 g | 0.20 oz
• Chocolate dark 80 g | 2.80 oz
• Butter 110 g | 3.90 oz
• Milk 3.2% 230 g | 8.10 oz

Cooking instructions:

1. Bring the eggs and the butter to the room temperature. Divide the eggs into whites and yolks.
2. Melt the chocolate, and cool it up to 30C (86F).
3. Heat the milk up to 30C (86F).
4. Sift the flour with the baking powder.
5. Combine the soft butter and the brown sugar; whip on a medium mixer speed for 3 to 4 minutes until lightening and a slight increase in volume.
6. Add the egg yolks one at a time, whisking each time until smooth.
7. Next, add the chocolate, and then the flour mix. Achieve the uniformity of the dough.
8. Pour the warmed milk in 3 to 4 passes, stirring the mass each time.
9. Whip the egg whites in a separate bowl on a medium mixer speed until fluffy homogeneous foam. Gradually add the white sugar, and whip until soft peaks (when turning the bowl, the mass remains stationary, but at the same time quite pliable).
10. Place one half of the whipped egg whites in the chocolate dough, and stir vigorously with a spatula until smooth. Stir in the other half in wide circular motions.

Baking:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (347F).
2. Pour the dough onto a silicone mat 35x25cm (13.8x9.8 inch); smooth and bake for 23 to 25 minutes. As soon as the crust starts moving away from the edges of the sides of the rug, and the top becomes homogeneous and dense. Check the readiness with a dry skewer (but not earlier than 20 minutes from the start of baking!).
3. Cool the finished sponge biscuit on a wire rack, and cut out 12 circles with a diameter of 6 cm (2.3 inch). Put the circles in a plastic bag, and leave them at the room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. The biscuit doesn’t require additional soaking!

Ingredients:

• Frozen cherry 100 g | 3.55 oz
• Cherry juice (you can partially use a bit form the cherries) 180 g | 6.35 oz
• Dry red wine 25 g | 0.90 oz
• Sugar 25 g | 0.90 oz
• Pectin 5 g | 0.20 oz
• Sheet gelatin 5 g | 0.20 oz

Cooking instructions:

1. Soak the gelatin in ice water.
2. Mix the pectin with the sugar in a measuring glass.
3. Combine the cherry juice with wine, and bring it to a boil over a medium heat; add the sugar with pectin, and mix. Add the cherries, and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the mass from the heat, and cool it slightly; add the squeezed gelatin, and let it swell completely.
4. Cool the compote, and place it in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Cream cheese 200 g | 7.05 oz
• Cream 33-35% 120 g | 4.25 oz
• Powdered sugar 30 g | 1.05 oz

All the components of the crème should be cold; the bowl and the whisk of the mixer should also be cooled down in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes before whipping.

Place the cream cheese, the cream and the sugar in a mixer bowl. Whip at the slowest speed for a minute, and then increase it to maximum, and whip for another 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the finished crème into a pastry bag with a 5 mm (0.2 inch) nozzle. You better refrigerate the crème before assembling the cake.

Assemble the cake, following the next order:

a circle of sponge biscuit – cherry compote in the center – cherries along the edge and on top – crème.

Repeat it two more times.

Coat the sides of the cakes with a thin layer of crème, and wrap it with the cling film; refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours before applying the ganache.

Ingredients:

• Dark chocolate 165 g | 5.80 oz
• Butter 82.5% 105 g | 3.70 oz
• Cream 33-35% 105 g | 3.70 oz
• Candied honey 20 g | 0.70 oz

Cooking instructions:

1. Cut the butter into cubes, and bring it to the room temperature.
2. Combine the chocolate, the cream and honey in a saucepan, and heat it over a medium heat until smooth, stirring.
3. Remove the mass from the heat; add the butter, and stir. Then mash it with a submersible blender.
4. Cover the ganache with the cling film in contact, and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.

Before covering the cakes, whisk the ganache with a mixer until light and uniform state.

If this ganache is a little "underwhipped", then it will have a slightly heterogeneous coarse consistency. 

Smooth the coated cakes with a spatula, and put them in the fridge before serving, carefully wrapping them with acetate tape.

Decorate the cakes at your discretion.

Bon Appetit!