CAKE IN THE HOUSE

Using Black Forest flavours to delicious effect, this ice-cream cake is a seasonal treat on a sunny summer’s day

BLACK CHERRY, CHOCOLATE & MERINGUE ICE-CREAM CAKE

100g dark chocolate

390g jar black cherries in kirsch

or 400g tin black cherries in syrup*

250g black cherry conserve or jam

600ml double cream

85g meringue nests (5–6)

to serve

Fresh cherries (with stalks)

A handful chopped pistachios

Icing sugar, to dust

1 Line the base of a 23–24cm springform tin with a square piece of baking paper, leaving the excess sticking out from the sides.

2 Melt the chocolate in a small bowl suspended over a pan of boiling water. Drain the cherries in a sieve set over a small pan, and set aside the kirsch or syrup.

3 With a food mixer, roughly blitz the cherries into a chunky, textured pulp. Stir the conserve or jam in a small bowl to loosen.

4 In a food mixer or large mixing bowl, whip the cream until just beginning to thicken and barely holding its shape – the trick is to under-whip. Pour in the conserve or jam, followed by the meringues, breaking and crumbling into irregular shapes and sizes as you go. Fold into the cream very gently, leaving a ripple effect.

5 Spread a scant third of the mixture into the tin. Top with all the blitzed cherries by spooning on in blobs, then joining the blobs.

Spread over half of the remaining cream using the same technique.

6 Dribble over all but 2–3 tbsp of the chocolate and spread to cover the cream. Finally, blob and spread over the last of the cream. Using a spatula or the back of a spoon, gently push the mixture into the tin to get rid of air pockets.

7 Cover with cling film, directly on the surface of the cake, and freeze until solid (overnight is best).

8 Boil the reserved cherry liquid fast until syrupy and reduced to around 2 tbsp. It will thicken up when cold and, if too thick when cold, loosen with a drop of boiling water.

9 Serve the cake straight from the freezer. Unmould onto a large platter. Warm the set-aside tbsps of chocolate and drizzle from a teaspoon, zigzagging over the cake and platter; repeat with some of the syrup. Pile the fresh cherries in the middle, scatter with chopped pistachios and dust with icing sugar.

Recipe from The Get-Ahead Cook by Jane Lovett (Apicius Publishing). Photography: Tony Briscoe