I’m not a big sweets fan. Sure, I like icecream and chocolate on on occasion, but if forced to choose, I’d choose a wheel of Brie cheese over a cake any day. That said, I do enjoy baking things. And a slice of homemade cake can be quite delicious. It was really hot today, and I was home without a car and to be honest a little bored. I got a sudden craving for a Swiss Roll cake and decided I needed to make one. I also remembered I had a jar of Maraschino cherries in the pantry that I needed to use. I spent about 20 minutes looking through cookbooks trying to find a recipe that utilised ingredients that I had on hand, when I came across a recipe for Black Forest Cake. I’d wanted to cook one for a long while, so I decided today was the day. I had everything I needed except for cream and extra chocolate, so after a quick run up to the Puma Max service station I was ready to begin. 

   
 
The recipe comes from this fantastic big book I have of German, Polish and Russian recipes. Incidentally, it’s the same book that has provided me with the recipe for the German Christmas Stollen I make every Christmas.

Ok, step 1 completed. I was very pleased with how the sponge turned out. Really even and perfectly cooked.

  
Then I cut the cake into 3 slices. Again, I was quite pleased how this turned out. 

  
Once the cake cooled, all that was needed was to assemble it. Layers of cream, cherries and Kirsch, and topped off with grated chocolate. In the end, it actually was but that hard to make. And it was delicious. Would make again.