Black Forest Gateau - Peyton and Byrne recipe

[attimes_bracing]

Tomorrow night I will be baking a black forest gateau for work.  A very nice colleague is leaving and we want to show our appreciation.  Now the Peyton and Byrne recipe shows that their cake is a little cracked.  If they crack theirs how am I going to cope?

The P and B recipe says make one deep sponge and cut into 3.  But I'm not too comfortable with cutting so will be making 3 separate sponges using this little gadget  which will bake a well into the middle of two of the cakes. I will put the bottom sponge with the well dipping down and the middle with the well doming up and the top one obviously with the well doming up. 

Any Black forest gateau hints to help me on the way?  Am I missing anything obvious?

Comments

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

If it cracks, no one's going to know under all that buttercream and chocolate curls.

Some of the recipes call for marinading the cherries in kirsch overnight -this isn't compulsory so don't panic if you haven't done this.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

I once tried to make this from a real German recipe. Germans have a way of getting cream to defy gravity that I never really got the knack of. All I can say is that, whatever happens (and most of it did), Black Forest Trifle is delicious.