Black Forest Cake - Revisited

A week ago last Thursday, we had a birthday party at church for the Relief Society, the largest women's organization in the world. We held a "Bake it Pretty" contest. I made a Black Forest Cake, my second attempt. This time I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe, and it made all the difference in the world. After tasting it Brett said that he is just not a fan of cherries and cake together. However, after tasting it I have decided that this is one of my favorite cakes.

I am sorry to say that, despite that fact that I loved it, it did not win an award. I am satisfied that in addition to myself, I heard others say that they enjoyed it (and I know at least one person--not me!--voted for it). You can see it in the photo below the orange balloon, dressed in white with polka dots (cherries, of course).

Here's an outline on how I made the cake.

Black Forest Cake
Source: Hershey's and Cafe Johnsonia

1. Bake Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake, using two 9-inch round cake pans; cool; refrigerate.
2. Drain a can of cherries (not cherry pie filling), reserving juice; cut cherries in half and set aside.
3. Add 1-2 teaspoons almond extract to reserved cherry juice. Generously brush juice over cool chocolate cakes.
4. Make Creamy Filling [recipe below].
5. Assemble cake: one chocolate cake round, creamy filling, half of the cherry halves, chocolate cake, creamy filling, cherry haves.

Creamy Filling
1 bar cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar (or less), to taste

Beat the cream cheese and add a little powdered sugar to taste. Slowly add the heavy cream and beat until thick.

Note: I had enough creamy filling to frost the sides of the cake.
Also, after looking back at Cafe Johnsonia's cake, I see that she thickened the leftover cherry juice with cornstarch and spooned it onto the top. She used stabilized whipped cream (something I have never tried) to frost her three layer cake. It is absolutely gorgeous. Mine didn't look like that, but it still tasted great, in my opinion.