Easy Mini Black Forest Cakes - cooking recipe

Ingredients

3/4 lb fresh cherries
1/2 cup cherry juice or nectar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp sugar
1 lb vanilla pound cake, cut into 8 slices
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 tsp Kirsch
2 None individual cups of packaged chocolate mousse

Preparation

Reserve 8 cherries for garnish. Remove the stems from the remaining cherries, cut in half and pit. Blend 2 tbsp of the cherry juice with the cornstarch and place in a pan with the remaining cherry juice and sugar. Heat gently, stirring all the time until just thickened. Add the cherries and remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
Use a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter to stamp out 8 circles from the pound cake slices and cut each circle in half horizontally. Whip the cream and vanilla extract together until soft peaks form.
Sprinkle the Kirsch over half the cake circles and top each with a spoonful of the cherry compote. Carefully spoon the chocolate mousse and 3/4 of the whipped cream over the cherries then gently place the remaining cake circles on top. Spread the remaining cream on top of each cake and decorate with the reserved cherries.