Chocolate Sponge Cake

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F (175C). Prepare 3 9-inch (22 cm) cake pans with parchment paper and greasing the sides.***
2. Melt butter, water and unsweetened cocoa powder in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Once melted, set it aside.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together: all purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour in the cocoa butter water and mix until no flour is unmixed. Add greek yoghurt, vanilla and eggs, one egg at a time.
4. Divide the batter into the three prepared cake pans. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool down completely in the cake pan, on a wire rack.

Cherry Filling

1. Add frozen cherries and raspberries, sugar and lemon juice into a medium saucepan. Mix the cornstarch with a few tbsp of water and pour into the saucepan. Give it a mix on medium high heat.
2. Stir often in the beginning, until the berries release their juices. In the beginning it looks like you need to add water, but you don’t because of this very reason. Once it looks more like a sauce, bring it up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. You can now stir occasionally for about 20-30 minutes or until the sauce is pretty thick. Let cool to room temperature.

Assemble the Cake

1. Place one cake on a cake stand or plate, pour cherry filling on top, use a knife to smooth it out. Try to avoid getting it all to the edges of the cake, because once the weight of the rest of the cake comes into play, the sauce will spread even more. Remember to reserve some cherry filling for the decorations.
2. Pour heavy cream and powdered sugar into a medium bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until stiff peaks. Add half of it on top of the first cherry filling layer.
3. Add the second layer of cake, second layer of cherry filling and second half of the whipped cream. Top with the last chocolate sponge cake.

Chocolate Buttercream

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Once the butter has melted, add in the unsweetened cocoa powder and mix.
2. Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to a large bowl and pour in the cocoa butter mixture. Mix with an electric mixer until it’s smooth. If you want it thicker, add in more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add more milk (or water).
3. Frost the cake with the chocolate buttercream. I’m not using any fancy equipment, I just add it on with a spatula and smooth it out with a knife. Just make sure you cover the cake nicely. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

To Make it Into a Halloween Cake

1. After the cake has chilled, decorate with more cherry filling and sugar glass shards (link to recipe below) on top. Tip: the cherry filling on top is really good, so I would add extra regardless of it being a Halloween cake or not.