The Forêt Noire

For this recipe, you need 1100 g of basic chocolate sponge.

• In a bain marie, bring the eggs, sugar and inverted sugar to 55 °C. In a mixer, whisk the mixture until it has completely cooled. Leave the mixture to firm up then, fold in the powdered ingredients using a spatula.
• Bake all the génoise mixture in a lined mould that is 20 cm diameter. Bake at 170 °C in a convection oven for approx. 50 minutes. Check whether the cake is cooked using the tip of a knife. Remove from the mould straight away once cooked and leave to cool.
• Slice the cooled génoise horizontally so that you have four layers of cake that are each 2.5 cm high.

• Bring the sugar and the water to a boil for a basic syrup. 
• Remove the syrup from the tinned Amarena cherries and mix it together with the basic syrup. Use this syrup to soak the layers of chocolate génoise.

• In a saucepan, bring the Sculpture by Corman, vanilla pod, and invert sugar to a boil. Pour onto the dark chocolate and mixer using a hand-held blender.
• Refrigerate until assembly. Once cooled, place in a mixer and whisk. Be careful not to whisk the mixture too much as it may split.

• Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate and trimoline. Mix thoroughly using a Bamix®. At 45 °C, add the butter and mix again. Leave to crystallise before use.

• Ensure the ganache is at room temperature before assembling the cake. Whip the Sculpture by Corman with the sugar and the vanilla to make a Chantilly cream. Rinse and drain the Amarena cherries to get rid of any syrup.
• Using a piping bag fitted with a No. 20 tip, pipe a ring of dark chocolate ganache around the edge of the first layer of ganache. Fill with half of the vanilla-flavoured Sculpture by Corman and a third of the Amarena cherries. Cover with a second layer of génoise and repeat the process with a layer of whipped chocolate ganache then a second layer of vanilla-flavoured Sculpture by Corman.
• Add Amarena cherries to each layer including the edges of the cake in particular. Too many cherries in the middle of the cake will make it difficult to cut.
• Place the final soaked sponge layer on the top. Ensure that the top of the cake is flat when adding the last layer of sponge.
• Use the rest of the ganache to roughly cover the cake on all sides then, place in the refrigerator.

• Using a basket weave tip, make a basket weave pattern. To do this, pipe a strip of cream vertically all the way up the side of the cake. Then, working horizontally, make 5 cm long strips of cream on top of the first leaving an even amount of space between each one.
• Pipe another strip of cream going up the side of the cake, level with the horizontal strips. Proceed in the same way, moving the horizontal strips each time so that they seem to intersect.
• Using a large fluted tip with 8 teeth, make big and tall swirls on the top of the cake. Place a nice Royal Ann cherry with its stalk upright on top of each swirl. Cover one of the cherries in gold leaf.