Mum's Cherry Chocolate Birthday Cake

 So it was my mum's birthday this week (I won't tell you how old she was) and I wanted to bake her a cake, as you do for birthdays! I thought about what type of cake she likes and decided a cherry and chocolate cake would be perfect. Having not made this cake before I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was surprisingly nice. I'd go as far as saying it was one of the nicest chocolate cakes I've ever eaten! And if you don't like cherries, don't worry! In the end they just helped keep the cake moist, if you didn't know they were in there I don't think you'd be able to tell!

(The ingredients are measured in cups for this recipe, which I just used a small mug for, but you can easily convert the measurements into grams on Google)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 3 cups muscovado sugar
• 2 2/3 cups self raising flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cold coffee
• 200g fresh cherries
• cherry jam
• 100g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and then grease and line two cake tins. Now put the cocoa powder into a bowl, add the hot water and stir until it's completely mixed. Put this to one side, you'll use it later! Now in a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour and baking soda, then add the butter and cocoa liquid and combine using an electric whisk, until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla and coffee with a fork (make sure the coffee is cold, if it's hot it will start to cook the eggs and it might curdle). Now add this to the cake mixture, a little at a time, whisking in between. Using a large chopping board and sharp knife, dice the cherries until they're in small pieces and then add this to the cake mixture.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for about 40 minutes. I checked the cakes after 35 minutes, just in case they were ready early! Leave to cool, then turn the first cake out and spread a thin layer of cherry jam over it. Now place the other cake on top and drizzle some melted white chocolate over it for decoration (you could be more creative with the decoration if you wanted to!)

Now all that's left is to sit back and enjoy this yummy cake!