Black Forest Cherry Cake

Ingredients

• 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans pitted sour cherries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch, round, cake pans; cover bottoms with waxed paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, 2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, milk, oil, and 1 tablespoon vanilla; beat until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 35 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Loosen edges, and remove to racks to cool completely.
4. Drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Combine reserved juice, cherries, 1 cup sugar and cornstarch in a 2 quart saucepan. Cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cool before using.
5. Combine whipping cream and confectioner's sugar in a chilled medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. With long serrated knife, split each cake layer horizontally in half. Gently brush loose crumbs off top and side of each cake layer with pasty brush or hands. To assemble, place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread with 1/3rd of the whipped cream. Top with 1/3 cherry topping. Top with second cake layer; repeat layers of frosting and cherry topping. Top with third cake layer. Add (or decorate with) remaining whipped cream and spoon remaining cherry topping onto top of cake.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/blueberry-crumb-bars/

These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the
fridge than they do at room temperature–something unusual for cookies!

Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and
baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter
to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of
dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon
juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture
evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly
brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool
completely before cutting into squares.


Try making it with apricots instead:
2 cups dried apricots
1/2 cup sugar (or a little less)
Water to cover
Pinch of salt

Boil this all together on the stove for a while until the water is
mostly absorbed and the apricots have broken down a bit and it
smells/tastes good. Add more sugar if needed. Put in a splash of
brandy if you want before taking it off the heat.

Then just use this mixture as the filling instead of the blueberries
below.