Chocolate and amaretto cake with morello cherry jam

A little bit of indulgence and sparkle was in order, for our December meeting of the Liverpool Clandestine Cake Club, so chocolate and alcohol were screaming out to me. I decided on this simple, but rich chocolate cake with amaretto cream, morello cherry jam and lots of edible glitter.The result was a very enjoyable cake but it was a little drier than I would have liked and a shot more alcohol was needed, so of course I had to make it again. It went down a treat on New Years Eve.

Ingredients

3 Free range eggs

175g Self raising flour

175 Caster sugar

175g Butter

200g Dark chocolate (melted in a bowl over a saucepan )

2 Heaped tbls cocoa powder

4 tbls Milk

100ml Double cream

50ml Amaretto

2-3 heaped tbls Morello cherry jam

Amaretti biscuits

Edible glitter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200/gas mark 4. Grease 2 8 inch sandwich cake tins.

2. Combine butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy

3. Add in the eggs, one by one, and mix together

4. Fold in flour and coco powder along with 100g of the chocolate that has been melted in a bowl over boiling water. Add in the milk.

5. Divide the mixture equally between the 2 tins and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

6. Whip the cream and the amaretto together until it is just thick enough that it does not fall of whisk easily.

7. Spread the jam on the bottom layer of the cake and then top with the cream. Add the top layer of sponge and drizzle the reaming melted chocolate then crumble the amaretti biscuits straightaway. Top with edible glitter, if you want a bit of post Christmas sparkle.