Pink Black Forest cake

Hi guys ! A bit late but I did say I would post this recipe, which was a fun cake to put together for a birthday. I layered pink velvet and fudge brownie cakes with vanilla cream and candied cherries to make this Pink Black Forest cake for October Rose (breast cancer awareness month). Believe it or not, I didn't have fresh cherries, since it was late in the season, but here is reason to believe you can use frozen or preserved cherries and it works out well too.

To be honest, I did make this cake over the space of 2 days. First I preserved the cherries, then made one cake layer and refrigerated everything. The next day I made another cake layer, as well as the cream and assembled it.

Start with preparing the cherries. In a medium saucepan, over low heat, add 400-500 g of frozen or preserved (unsweetened in water) whole pitted cherries and 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup of water, and 2 tablespoons of kirsch. Once simmering, add 1-1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch until dissolved and simmer about 5-6 minutes until the liquid has thickened, cherries have softened but not too cooked, making sure they stay whole and plump.

Make the layers of cake :

Pink Velvet layer :

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 cup yogurt or buttermilk

1-1/2 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon pink gel food coloring

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven 350° F /180° C. Line 2 cake pans (I use 9" or 22 cm) or 1 tall panettone 9" round pan with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, oil, half the sugar, vanilla. Add buttermilk (or yogurt) and food coloring then sift in all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt).

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and vinegar with a electric beater until you get soft peaks. Add the rest of the sugar and continue to beat another minute until thickened and you can feel the resistance with the beater. With a spatula, fold the egg whites into the mixture of the first bowl. Do not overmix, but make sure the color is uniform. Divide batter evenly into 2 pans, or spoon into one taller pan, smoothing the top, and then bake for 12/15 minutes or until the top has risen. Check if it's done with a toothpick inserted in the middle that should come out mostly clean.

Fudgy brownie layer (to save time use a brownie mix or here's my quick recipe) :
¾ cup butter
¾ cup semi-chocolate or chips
¼ cup strong coffee (prepared)
2 eggs
1 ⅔ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ⅓ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven 350° F /180° C. Line a cake pan (I use 9" or 22 cm) with parchment paper. Melt chocolate with butter (in microwave or over low heat in a pan) until smooth, then stir in coffee. In a bowl, mix eggs and sugar until you get a light yellow color, about 2 minutes, add vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, then fold in melted chocolate mixture. Spoon into pan and cook for 15-20 minutes or until just cooked. Allow to cool. I was able to cut mine in two disks, but it can be tricky since it's crumbly. Make sure you wait until the cake has cooled, even better, put in the refrigerator and cut when it's cold.

Whipped cream frosting :

2 8-oz softened cream cheesse

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup confectioners sugar

In a bowl, whip the cream until you get soft peaks. Add the confectioners sugar about 1/4 cup at a time, then add the vanilla. Fold in softened cream cheese (soften in the microwave about 20 seconds, allow to cool before folding into whipped cream). Whip another minute or so until the cream is thickened.

First layer of brownie with cream and cherries in the middle. I lined the pan with transparent plastic liner.

Second pink disk layer with cherries along the edges and cream in the middle.

Now for the assembly. I used a bottom-less adjustable baking ring (sides only), the same size as the cake disks, and lined the sides with a transparent plastic liner. If you don't have that kind of ring, use a plastic liner, the same circumference as the disks, but tape it well to maintain a tall column shape in which you will insert and layer the disks. If you used a tall panettone pan for the pink cake, cut in half into 2 disks / or use your 2 cake layers if you used 2 pans. Cut the fudge cake layer in half into 2 disks. The candied cherry may have solidified a bit, warm in microwave about 20-30 seconds to liquefy or loosen for assembly. Start by placing a chocolate layer on the bottom of the column liner. Top with a layer of the cream along the edges, then spread about 3 tablespoons of the candied cherry preserves in the middle of the disk. Add a pink cake disk, line cherries along the edges, add cream layer in the middle (I mixed some cherry juice into the cream). Top with a third disk (I only used 3 disks of cake and froze about 2 disks for later use, but continue with another layer if you would like a taller cake). Refrigerate about 2 hours or overnight.
Place on a serving dish and remove plastic liner. I finished the top layer with a mix of 2 tablespoons of cherry liquid to about half a cup of cream, spreading that on half the cake, then piped with more cream (I added some pink gel color to the cream to get the 2-color effect), adding a few cherries and edible flowers (fuchsias) to decorate.