Black Forest Cherry Cake

This week was Randel's 34th birthday and I made one of his favorite cakes. He had a little help from Anthony in blowing out the candles.  This is not a great cake to take somewhere because it needs to stay refrigerated.  I took it w/o the whipped topping, put it in the refrigerator at the restaurant and put it together when we were finished with the meal.  The middle layer didn't have whipped topping because I didn't want to put it on and be in the hot car for the trip to meet the kids in San Marcos.  It comes from Cooking Light 2010


Printable Recipe:
https://sites.google.com/site/whatscookingattheedwards/black-forest-cherry-chocolate-cake

Filling:
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup cranberry juice coctail (you could probably use the juice from the canned cherries, but I used the cranberry juice because it was a special occasion and I didn't want to try something new.
1/4 cup water
3 Tablespoons cornstarch2 cans pitted tart cherries in water, drained

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium-size saucepan; stir until cornstarch dissolves, stirring constantly.
After this gets thick,(about 1 minute) take it off the heat and add the 2 cans cherries and cool completely.

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Cooking spray
2 cups frozen reduced-fat whipped topping, thawed
1 Tablespoon kirsch (cherry brandy)
1/2 ounce dark chocolate curls.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a separate bowl; stir with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to sugar/flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed just until well blended (batter will be thin).  Pour batter into 2 (9") cake pans coated with cooking spray. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.  Place 1 cake layer on a plate, and spoon half of cherry mixture evenly over the top, leaving a 1/4 inch border around edges. Combine whipped topping and kirsch in a small bowl. Spoon 1 cup whipped topping mixture evenly over cherry mixture. Top with remaining cake layer. Spoon remainin 1 1/2 cups cherry mixture onto cake layer, leaving a 2 inch border from the edge of the cake layer. Garnish with chocolate curls. Cover loosely, and chill until ready to serve.