Choc & cherry cube cake

Delicious and refreshing cherry cubes. With a layer of the best chocolate cake, yoghurt panna cotta and sweet cherries in jelly. It is a fantastic cake; however, it is pretty pricey due to the price of the cherries. If you have a cherry tree in your garden, you’re in luck! This recipe makes one large baking tin – perfect for the whole family.

Ingredients for the chocolate cake:

• 130 g plain flour
• 40 g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 125 ml (half a cup) buttermilk or kefir
• 125 ml (half a cup) brewed coffee
• 60 ml rapeseed or sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 180 g light brown sugar

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Add the following ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix with a whisk (don’t beat!): buttermilk, coffee, oil, vanilla extract, egg and sugar. Add sifted plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix with a whisk only to combine the ingredients.

Line a baking tin (25 x 38 cm; my bottom and top dimensions of the tin were the same) with baking paper. Pour the cake batter into the tin – it should be pretty runny.

Bake at 160°C for 20-25 minutes or until a stick inserted into the cake comes out dry. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Ingredients for yoghurt panna cotta:

• 150 ml milk
• 425 ml whipping cream
• 425 g Greek yoghurt
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 4 tsp gelatin or 4 gelatin sheets + half a cup water

Pour water over the gelatin and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

Pour the milk, whipping cream, Greek yoghurt and sugar into a pot. Take out the seeds from the vanilla pod (or add in the vanilla paste) and add into the pot, along with the empty vanilla pod. Heat on a low power, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Before the mixture begins to boil, remove from the hob and remove the vanilla pod. Add the soaked gelatin to the mixture and mix well until combined. Let cool. Place in the fridge to cool until it has a gel consistency (if the panna cotta is too runny, it will soak into the chocolate cake).

Pour the thickened panna cotta onto the chocolate cake while still in the cake tin, level out. Cool in the fridge until it has fully set.

Ingredients for the cherry jelly:

• 1.5 kg cherries
• 3 cherry jelly packets (each one for 500 ml of water)
• 1.2 litres water

Remove the seeds from the cherries. Dissolve the jelly in 1.2 litres of boiling water and cool.

Place the cherries on the set panna cotta. Pour some of the jelly on the cherries – this helps them to stick to the panna cotta. Place in the fridge to set. Then, pour the rest of the jelly in and place in the refrigerator until set.

Enjoy!