Attempting something scary: The black forest gateau

I’ve wanted to make a black forest gateau for ages but have been putting it off as it looked like it would take hours and would inevitably go horrifically wrong.

Lovely friends coming over for dinner gave me the perfect opportunity to try it – they wouldn’t mind if it ended up flat as a pancake and pudding plans switched to vanilla ice cream with black forest chunks chucked in for novelty.

I used this recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2303676/black-forest-gteau.  It seemed simple enough so thought I’d give it a go.

As you may have gathered from the pictures, this isn’t the blog of an accomplished baker, this is the blog of someone who quite likes dabbling in the kitchen and normally ends up with ‘rustic’ results, as was the case here.

Rustic, indeed it was.  The chocolate I put on the top was too runny, the sponge wasn’t perfect and I slapped on the cream with about as much artistic skill as I possess, but it tasted yummy, even if I do say so myself.

Aware of the excessive calorie content (it’s like three cakes in one!) the girls stopped after one slice.  The boys, on the other hand, ate their own body weight in it (not difficult, given the sponge was a bit on the dense side).

If I were to do it again I might stop after two layers.  As you can see from one of the pics, it actually looks better at this stage with all the cream and cherries on top.

I would do it again, actually, as it does have the ‘wow, that’s huge’ factor, and when it comes to puds, bigger is always best!