Chocolate ganache cake with Amarena cherries

Name: Chocolate ganache cake with Amarena cherries
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 175g of raw cane sugar; 150g of unsalted butter; 180g of 100% cacao, Willie recommends Rio Caribe. If you'd rather use 70% cacao chocolate, use 260g of it and reduce the sugar to 100g; 100g of ground almonds; 24 Amarena cherries in syrup, preferably Fabri; 2 tbsp of brandy, Willie recommends Somerset cider brandy; 400ml of double cream; 80g of raw cane sugar; 90g of 100% cacao, preferably Rio Caribe. If you'd rather use 70% cacao chocolate, use 130g of it and reduce the sugar to 40g

by Willie Harcourt-Cooze

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Dessert
easy
8
1 hour 10 minutes

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Willie Harcourt-Cooze serves up a stunning chocolate dessert. A chocolate sponge base soaked in Amarena cherry syrup and brandy is topped with a heady chocolate ganache with a few more cherries added for good measure. The Venezuelan Rio Caribe cacao he uses pairs perfectly with the brandy and cherries due to its incredible depth of flavour and complex nutty notes.

First published in 2018

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Ingredients

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Imperial

Cake base

6 eggs
175g of raw cane sugar
150g of unsalted butter
180g of 100% cacao, Willie recommends Rio Caribe. If you'd rather use 70% cacao chocolate, use 260g of it and reduce the sugar to 100g
100g of ground almonds
24 Amarena cherries in syrup, preferably Fabri
2 tbsp of brandy, Willie recommends Somerset cider brandy

Ganache topping

400ml of double cream
80g of raw cane sugar
90g of 100% cacao, preferably Rio Caribe. If you'd rather use 70% cacao chocolate, use 130g of it and reduce the sugar to 40g

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Equipment

8cm ring mould 8
Swiss roll tin

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4

To make the cake base, beat the eggs with the sugar until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, melt the butter with the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water

Gently fold half the egg mixture into the chocolate then fold in the other half. Mix in the ground almonds and spread out on a lined baking tray. Bake for 7 minutes

Meanwhile, mix together 2 tbsp of the syrup from the cherries and all of the brandy. Remove the cake from the oven and, while still warn, prick all over with a fork and drizzle over the syrup mixture. Cut into circles using the metal pastry rings, leaving them in place. Discard (or nibble on) the remaining sponge

To make the ganache topping, gently heat the cream in a heavy-based pan. Once hot but not bubbling, place the chocolate and sugar in the pan and stir over a very low heat until everything has melted together

Cut strips of baking paper big enough to line the tops of the moulds. Pour in the ganache to a 2cm depth and push 3 cherries into the top of each, so they are just poking out of the top. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to set and cool