Cherry cake from scratch is the ultimate birthday cake! It consists of three sponges and five layers of of cream cheese, chocolate, cherries and cherry sauce. This sour cherry cake is tall, looks beautiful and tastes awesome!
Prep Time3 hourshrs20 minutesmins
Cook Time2 hourshrs
Chilling time2 hourshrs
Total Time5 hourshrs20 minutesmins
Course: Cake, Dessert
Cuisine: Global
Keyword: Birthday, party, vegetarian
Servings: 10
Calories: 1154kcal
Author: Cooking Journey
Equipment
1 or 3 x 8 inch / 20 cm spring form pans
parchment paper
hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment
double boiler (a pot with boiling water with a heat-proof bowl on top)
Whip egg with yolks until stiff peaks, using hand or stand mixer.
1 egg, 2 egg yolks
Add butter, sugar and cherry juice.
80 g butter, 200 ml cherry nectar juice, 130 g sugar
Cook on the double boiler on low temperature for 1-1,5 hours until thick. Stir occasionally. Mix in cornstarch in the end.
1 tbsp cornstarch
Remove from the stove and let it cool.
For cake sponge.
Preheat your oven to 350 F / 170 C.
Whip eggs with sugar and rum essence for 15-20 min until pale and triple in size.
4 eggs, 120 g sugar, 1/2 tsp rum essence
Sift in flour in two batches and gently and slowly fold with a spatula into the eggs.
120 g flour
Layer the bottom of spring form pan with parchment paper. Grease the edges with butter, and, preferably dust with flour. Invert to remove the excess flour.
Pour batter into prepared spring form pan.
Bake about 30-40 min until top is golden and inserted wooden skewer comes out clean. Don’t open the oven door for at least 30 minutes!!!
Cool the sponge in slightly open oven for 10 minutes.
Cool the sponge in the room temperature for 20 minutes, then release the edges of the pan and remove parchment paper.
Repeat this recipe 2 more times to have 3 sponges in total!
For cream cheese filling
Whip cream cheese for 1 minute. 1/4 of the cream cheese put in the separate bowl.
1000 g cream cheese
Add cocoa to the smaller part of cream cheese and whip until incorporated.
25 g sweetened cocoa
Add butter and sugar to the white part of cream cheese, whip well until soft peaks. Add a tablespoon more sugar, if it is too runny, or add a teaspoon of milk, if it looks too thick.
1/2 cup sugar powder, 100 g butter, 510 g cherries
Assembling
With a big serrated knife cut every sponge in half lengthwise. **
Put one half of the sponge, cut side up, on a cake serving stand.
Cover the top of the sponge with white cream cheese filling, starting about 2 inch / 5 cm from the edges. Leave the middle without cream cheese.
Soak the middle of the sponge with a cherry juice (from defrosted cherries). Add the cherry cream in the middle, spread it up to the edges of white layer.
5-7 tbsp cherry juice
Put defrosted cherries around on the white layer and around on edges between white layer and cherry cream layer.
510 g cherries
Cover with the other half of the sponge, cut side down.
Repeat steps 3-6, using cocoa cream cheese filling instead of white cream cheese filling.
Repeat every layers until the last sponge – white layer, then cocoa layer and so on until you put the last sponge on top. Leave the last sponge empty on top!
Make sure your cake stand straight and put it in the fridge.
For frosting
Whip all ingredients for frosting. It needs to be thick and spreadable. Add more sugar, if it look too runny.
700 g cream cheese, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 100 g butter
Remove the cake from the fridge and put spread around the frosting, removing the excess, or adding more, where needed. Use offset spatula, or the back of cake serving spatula. It should be even from every side and top. Take your time. Leave the cake in the fridge.
Decorating the cake
Melt the chocolate on the double boiler (Bain Marie).***
150 g dark chocolate
Put the frosted cake on the table. Spoon the melted chocolate on the top, starting in the middle. Spread the chocolate up to the edges in thin layer, letting some drips from the sides. Work fast, when the chocolate is hot and spreadable. You can’t change it, when it sets.
Let the cake with chocolate set in the fridge.
Spread the excess melted chocolate (you can remelt it if it sets) on the small baking tray, layered with parchment paper. Lave the tray in the freezer until sets.
When the chocolate on the cake sets, remove it from the fridge to decorate with berries.
1 handful cherries, 1 handful blueberries
Put the cherries with stems in the middle of the cake. Put blueberries around the cherries.****
Remove the tray with chocolate from the freezer. Cut different triangles with a knife and pace them in between the cherries.
Sprinkle crushed cashews around the edges of the cake.
2 tbsp cashews
Serve and enjoy the celebration!
Notes
* You can bake all sponges at once, if your oven size allows it. Make sure they all are baked evenly. ** Let all the sponges cool completely before cutting them! *** Pour water in the pot. Put chocolate in the heat proof bowl, that you can put on the pot with water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Bring it to the boil, then watch the chocolate melts. Stir the chocolate until it melts completely and remove from the heat. **** You can dip the berries in melted chocolate before putting on the cake, so that they stay in place, when you transfer or cut the cake.