Chocolate and Cherry Cake..

Last week was the wedding anniversary of our very good friends. I wanted to bake something nice for them, but then was skeptical. Plus I had very little time also. I have been admiring Deeba's work with baking and all the goodies that she makes. I saw Purnima's lovely cake on her blog too. Upon my asking, both of them have been very nice and have given me their suggestions also. I had wanted to bake for some other occassion, but took on their inputs for this one. Thank you so much Deeba and Purnima both for the tips and more for the encouragement. So, I just went ahead and tried my hand at this cake.

For those of you who see it, it may look really plain and simple, but for me was a great achievement, coz I have never decorated a cake before. Although the finishing on the cake sides is not good and I messed up royally with the cream piping, I was very happy with what I made and was very glad that my friends were happy and they liked the taste of the cake too.

Since I was short on time, I just used a ready-cake mix of Funfetti sponge cake. With one pack, I baked 2 cakes of 8inch square and then sliced each cake into two and then layered them with a cherry-cream filling in between.
For both the filling and the chocolate ganache, I followed Deeba's recipe from here and here.

For the filling

Whipped Cream - 500 ml
Icing Sugar - 4 tbsps
Canned Cherries - 1 tin, chopped. I used a few of the Maraschino cherrries, a little of cherry pie filling and a few green candies cherries.
Reserve a few of the Maraschino cherries for placing on top of cake.

Method for filling

- Using electric beater, beat the whipped cream with the icing sugar till it holds peak.
- Take out about 3 tbsps of this in a ziploc baggie and keep aside.
- In the remaining cream, mix in the chopped cherries, about 2 tsps of pie filling anf mix well.
- I kept this in the fridge till use.

Chocolate ganache

Semi-sweet chocolate morsels - 200 gms
Heavy whipping cream - 200 ml

Method for ganache

- Put the chocolate morsels and cream together in a pan. Heat till the chocolate melts. Remove from heat and mix till it forms a uniform mixture.
- Keep aside till it cools down at room temperature. Be sure to cover the pan with a cling-wrap so that a film doesn't form over the ganache.

For the creamed piping on top and sides, I just used the ziploc bag in which I had reserved the extra cream.

I made shortcuts this time by cooling both the cake and the ganache in the fridge and put together everything after cooling.

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