These tasty little puds can be made up in advance making them a great little dinner party dessert. Simply serve with hot caramel sauce and they are irresistible!
For the cakes:
160g butter, plus extra for greasing
100g dark chocolate, cut into chunks or use chocolate chip
190g soft light brown sugar
2 large free-range eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Caramel Sauce:
100g butter
150g soft dark brown sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
150ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Generous pinch of salt
Pudding moulds
Large bowl
Electric Hand Mixer
Saucepan
Black Forest Cake is a traditional German dessert that has been well and truly adopted by happy dessert eaters worldwide. Typically, black forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, more cherries, and chocolate shavings. This version is particularly delicious as I spike each layer of the cake with rum or kirsch, a fragrant cherry liqueur making it moist, boozy and oh so good. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
This cake was eaten by the poor of Dublin in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for it was very cheap because it was made by bakers from their stale cake or bread stocks. This can be made with stale cake rather than bread if preferred, in which case omit the dried fruit. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.