Chocolate sour cherry cake

Ingredients

For the sponge

• 6 eggs
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 packet baking powder (10 g)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 5 g margarine

For the cream

• 500 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 vial rum essence (2 ml)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 125 g Delma baking margarine
• 1 jar sour cherry jam (300 g)

For the syrup

• 600 ml water
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• grated zest of 2 oranges

For decorating

• 200 ml whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1 packet whipped cream stabilizer
• 50 g dark chocolate

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff, add the sugar and vanilla sugar, and continue beating until you have a firm meringue. Fold in the egg yolks, oil and baking powder, then gradually add the flour and cocoa, gently mixing from the bottom up until bubbles form in the batter. 2. Pour the batter into a round cake pan lined with baking paper and greased with margarine. Bake for 40 minutes, until the sponge passes the toothpick test and is browned. While it bakes, prepare the cream and syrup. 3. For the cream, heat 375 ml of milk until it boils. Beat the eggs with the sugar, flour, rum essence, cocoa and the remaining 125 ml of milk. Pour the mixture into the hot milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until it thickens like a pudding. Turn off the heat, add the margarine and stir until it melts. 4. For the syrup, bring 600 ml of water to a boil with the sugar and grated orange zest. Let it boil for 5 minutes, then take the saucepan off the heat. 5. Leave the sponge, cream and syrup to cool for about 60 minutes. Beat the whipping cream with the vanilla sugar until stiff, add the stabilizer and beat a little longer. Chill the whipped cream for 30 minutes while the other components cool. Cut the cooled sponge into three even layers. 6. Drain the sour cherries from the jam, without using the juice. Place the first layer on a serving plate and soak it with syrup, then spread on half the chocolate cream. Add the second layer, soak it with syrup, add the sour cherries and half the whipped cream. Top with the last layer and soak it with syrup. 7. Spread the remaining chocolate cream over the cake and around the sides. Decorate with the remaining whipped cream and grate the chocolate over the top. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours or until the next day.