Drunken Cherry Cake

MDS and I first tried this delicious cake at Shokolad in the Ukrainian Village in Chicago. We had so much good food there, that I have already posted one recipe, Buckwheat, and may post another in the future. Living in Chicago, we are lucky to have excellent cuisine from all over the world. MDS said that my version of this cake is better than what we had at Shokolad, but I think he is just preserving his role as official taste-tester of this blog.

The cake is bit like a Black Forrest Cake, but rather than using layers, after baking the cake the inside is scooped out to mix with the sweet cream and Kahlua-soaked cherries, which is then filled into the cake. The chocolate cake batter uses many eggs resulting in a dense cake that can hold in all the cream, cherries and cake filling. I really like the cherry and chocolate combination, but another fruit could be used, such as blueberry or apricot. Despite the number of steps needed to make this cake, the end result is work it.

Drunken Cherry Cake 

Cake
10 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda mixed with 1 tablespoon vinegar
1 3/4 cups sifted flour

Cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butter softened at room temperature
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3 oz dark chocolate, shredded
1 cup Kahlua
1 cup cherries (fresh, frozen or dried)

The day before you plan to make the cake, soak the cherries in the Kalua overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy with a mixer on high speed. Add baking soda with vinegar and cocoa. Continue to mix on medium speed. Add flour and carefully mix on low speed. Pour batter into a buttered 9 inch x 3 1/4inch springform pan. Bake for about 55 minutes, or until done. Cool the cake completely before assembling.

Cream: Beat butter on medium for  a few minutes, adding the sweetened condensed milk slowly. In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream with powdered sugar. Reserve about one cup of the whipped cream to top the cake. Combine remaining whipped cream with the butter cream.

Assembling: Take out the inside of the cake and put it in a mixing bowl. Spread some cream blend on inside of the cake. Add the rest of the cream to the cake in the bowl. Add the cherries to the bowl with cake, and mix everything together until the cream, cherry and cake is well combined and no dry pieces of cake is seen. Fill the inside of a cake with cake, cherry and cream mixture. Spread the reserved whipped cream on the cake. Top with with shredded chocolate. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Enjoy!