Black Forest in a Bowl

This is one of our families all time favourite desserts.  And I love it because it’s easy – kids can help!!!  And you can make it as big or small as you need so it’s great for feeding a crowd.

 All you need are these four ingredients.

And you don’t need this much whipping cream.  It was nearing expiry date and I needed to use it – so we just made our Black Forest a little more creamy than usual.

Bake your chocolate cake – we often do this the night before.  And you don’t need to grease your pan or anything either.

Have one of your children rip apart the cooled cake into bite size chunks and line all the edges of your bowl.  We’re using the lovely huge stainless steel bowl – the one that got dented when Lee used it as a toboggan!

You’ll notice we still have some cake left in the pan once all the bowl edges are lined.  We’ll use that later, or eat it!

Make one package of instant chocolate pudding.

Have another kid whip up the whipping cream.

The first batch of chocolate pudding gets poured on top of all the chocolate cake.  I find it easier to pour in before the pudding has set too much.  Let it set in the pan between chunks of cake.

We put a layer of whipped cream over the pudding because we had all that whipping cream, but usually we don’t – tastes great either way.  Now find another kid to spread the cherry pie filling over all the whipped cream.  (Lee noticed that her dress matches the dessert!)

And find another kid to rip up the rest of the chocolate cake and throw it in on top of the cherries.

This helps fill up the hole in the middle of the bowl.

Now for the final package of chocolate pudding poured over top of the new layer of cake.

And the rest of the whipped cream goes on top.  We added a few chocolate shavings.  Cherries also look lovely on top.

We fed twelve people on Fathers’ Day and used just over half the bowl – and they were pretty generous portions.  The leftovers tasted great the next day, so no worries!!!

We also love the vanilla version – white cake, vanilla pudding, banana slices, whipped cream and Skor bits.  Give them both a try!