Eggless Black forest cake

I prepared this Eggless Black Forest Cake for my friends son's birthday.This being my first attempt in making a black forest cake , I am happy with the results.I partially adapted this recipe from Nestles kitchen. The only thing I would like to try next time is to make it more moist. I wanted to pipe some borders but couldn't get the required stiffness for piping.Here comes the recipe...

Ingredients:

-      Cake  -
All purpose flour(Maida)	1 cup
Sweetened condensed milk	½ tin(200 gms)
Butter	60 gms
Powdered sugar	2 tblsp
Cocoa powder	2 tblsp
Baking powder	1 tsp
Baking soda	½ tsp
Aerated cola(I used pepsi)	150 ml approximately
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
-  Sugar Syrup  -
Sugar	¼ cup
Water	¼ cup
-      Icing  -
Heavy whipping cream	200 ml
Icing sugar	3-4 tblsp
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
-      Decoration  -
Glazed cherry cut into small pieces for filling and few whole cherries for garnishing	As needed
Chocolate shavings	As needed

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160°C.
• Sieve Flour,cocoa,baking powder,baking soda.
• Melt the butter. After it comes to room temperature add the condensed milk, powdered sugar and beat well.
• Add the flour mixture in parts to the butter mixture alternating with cola mixing well after each addition.You can use a whisk to do this .No need for electric beaters here.
• Do this till all the flour is added up and the desired consistency is reached.
• Pour this to a greased baking pan ( I used a 7 inch round pan here).
• Bake in a preheated oven at 160 °C for 30-35 mins till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow it to cool well.
• For the sugar syrup, heat the sugar and water in a saucepan together. Once the sugar dissolves completely and starts to boil switch off the flame and allow to cool.
• For the icing whip the heavy cream ,once soft peaks are formed add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat till stiff peaks are formed. Keep it in the refrigerator till further use.
• Once the cake is cooled completely,slice it horizontally into 2 halves.
• Apply the sugar syrup liberally on the entire cake surface.Spread some icing and add the chopped cherries and chocolate shavings on top of it.
• Cover it with the other layer. Spread sugar syrup for the top layer too and apply a thin coat of icing all over the cake and let it sit in the refrigerator for 15-20 mins. 
• Now apply the final coat of icing with a spatula. Decorate with chocolate shavings and cherries . Allow the cake to sit for 1 or 2 hrs before serving. 

Note:

• Add cola till you get dropping consistency of the batter. You may not need the entire 150ml.
• Keep checking the cake after 25 mins.