Preheat your oven to 160C/140CFan and grease & line three 8″/20cm Cake tins – leave to the side.
In a heatproof bowl, microwave the Dark Chocolate & Butter till melted – mine takes two minutes! Pour the Coffee Granules into 125ml Boiling Water and mix – add the coffee to the Chocolate/Butter mix and stir well till smooth!
In a separate large bowl add the Plain Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder, Bicarbonate of Soda, Golden Caster Sugar, and Light Brown Sugar and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well!
Mix the Eggs with the Buttermilk – Add the Chocolate Mix & the Egg Mix to the dry ingredients and stir together, try not to over mix it – it should be thick but runny when finished and no flour lumps!
Pour the mixture into the three lined tins and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens).
Once baked, drizzle over a couple of tablespoons of the Kirsch Liquid from the Jar of Cherries onto each cake.
Leave for 10-15 minutes to cool in the tin and then fully cool on a wire rack.
For the Decoration
With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes) Gradually add the Icing Sugar and add the vanilla essence.
Beat for a couple of minutes so its extra smooth & creamy. Add in the Double Cream 1tbsp at a time till you get your desired consistency.
On each layer of the cake, spread some Cherry Jam. Pipe some buttercream round the edges using a 2D Closed Star Piping Tip and spread some in the middle.
Add a couple of cherries from the kirsch jar. On the top layer of the cake, pipe the buttercream round the edge, and spread a little in the middle.
Then, in the middle of the buttercream swirls, (like you see in the pictures) add the rest of your cherries from the Cherries in Kirsch Jar (The liquid should have been used to soak into the sponges).
On top of the buttercream swirls, add a fresh cherry, and sprinkle on some dark chocolate curls. Enjoy!
Notes
I bought my Cherries in Kirsch Jar in Tesco. If you can’t access it, you can use normal kirsch, but buy another 300 of cherries and soak them in kirsch over night before baking the cake.
You can use fresh cream filling in the cake instead if you liked, but the cake needs to be stored in the fridge if you do. I used Buttercream so it lasts much better!
You can also bake this into two layers rather than three layers by using two 20cm tins – they will take 35-40 minutes in the oven!
This cake will last for 3 days in an airtight container!