It was Mr S’ birthday last weekend. He doesn’t normally like celebrating his birthday or making a fuss but his family think differently! He also told me not to make him a birthday cake. But when I don’t bake anything he asks if I’ve baked anything. I can’t win! I don’t listen to him- we were having a roast dinner on the Sunday so I baked him a Bundt and called it a birthday dessert instead!

Mr S doesn’t have a sweet tooth as such but there are a few bakes he likes. Give him flapjack and Eccles Cakes and he’s in clover. But I couldn’t give him a pile of flapjacks for his birthday. So I thought about cakes he does like and I know he does like Black Forest Gateaux.

Making him a Black Forest Gateau was a great idea! It turned out a Black Forest Gateau was one of the challenges to scratch off my #100bakeschallengeposter and there is also a Black Forest Bundt in the Bundt book by Melanie Johnson which is my new baking challenge for 2023. Although the gâteau and Bundt are slightly different, they still contain all the flavours and the same topping.

I found a can of pitted black cherries in syrup when I was out shopping. They were very expensive at £3.25 a can and I was horrified when I saw the price. But there was no alternative so I had to buy them.

On Sunday morning I made and decorated the Black Forest Bundt in time for our Sunday roast lunch. I used my Jubilee Bundt pan for this recipe as it has a pretty lattice design.

To prepare the Bundt pan for use, I brushed melted butter into all the nooks and crannies of the pan and then dusted this with a tablespoonful of cocoa powder.

In one bowl I mixed softened butter, brown sugar, eggs, boiling water and cocoa powder. The recipe also mentioned adding vanilla but I chose to add syrup from the tin of black cherries instead. In another bowl I weighed out sour cream and in another- plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. I mixed in the two latter bowls of ingredients alternating carefully between each other until they were all combined.

The oven was preheated to 160oC and then all the mixture was spooned into the tin and levelled out. When ready, it was popped into the oven for 45-50 minutes according to the recipe. But after 50 minutes, the mixture was still sticking to the skewer when I tested it, so I gave the Bundt another 5 minutes.

Usually when a Bundt comes out of the oven and you are ready to get it out of the pan, you should do it after 10 minutes and let it cool down completely on a wire rack. I read somewhere that if you leave it any longer, it’s difficult to get out as the mixture is damp. The last two bundts I’ve made have slid out perfectly in one piece and don’t need tapping or bashing on the worktop. This one took some getting out and I realised that I’d left it longer than 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven. My Mum was with me and she told me to get a knife round the edge of it. I would usually do this with a straight edge cake but I didn’t want to do this with the Bundt. I didn’t want to end up spoiling it. In the end my Mum took the risk and she did put a knife around the edge of it! This made it come out and thankfully it did not break or have half the cake still stuck to the bottom of the pan.

We left the cake to cool down and while this was happening I whipped up some double cream and grated some dark chocolate. I also drained and rinsed my tin of black cherries. With some of the cherry syrup, I drizzled this on top of the cake so that it soaked into the sponge.

Once the cake was completely cool, I piped a dozen rosettes of cream on the top of the Bundt. I put a black cherry on top of each rosette and then sprinkled the top of the cake with the grated chocolate.

We had Roast Pork for dinner, followed by a slice of Black Forest Bundt. There was some leftover whipped cream and also half a carton left of the double cream so I brought both to the table for people to help themselves to.

Happy Baking!

I think the Black Forest Bundt was a big success and I’ll definitely make it again. No candles for Mr S as he doesn’t like the fuss!

Love Sam. Xx