Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake

   November 08, 2018       Lyn Alina

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There is no definite term to describe how gorgeous and classic black forest cake is.  This is my most favorite cake ever.  This cake is super rich with sour, bitter and sweetness of the cherry and chocolate sponge cake with creamy whipped cream, make it as a perfect dessert to indulge.

To be honest, this was my first time making this cake.  I have never made cake with the decoration before since we don't really like the creamy stuff in our desserts.  But this one is different, even though it is a little bit creamy, we both love the cake so much and we didn't scrape off the cream off the cake as we usually do when we bought cake at the bakery, but instead we managed to gobbled up the whole cake including the cream! Yeay!

I am totally proud and happy that my first ever making this cake was a complete success! My hubby and I had been crazily craving for this cake, but unfortunately we weren't able to find this lovely cake in the bakery shop nearby our house.  That's why I decided to make it on my own.  I made this a day after I bought all the ingredients from Bakery Goods Store in Section 13, Shah Alam.  I was so focused to buy the cake ingredients and I forgot to buy the piping nozzle for the decoration!  Luckily, I still have 1 star shaped nozzle at my home. Phew!

Isn't it pretty? Eheh..

I just love how it looks like.  Even though I decorated the cake with limited garnishes and toppings, I am satisfied with the outcome. It looks simple with only thinly layer of the frosting in between each layer.

But honestly, it isn't just pretty on the outside.  It is the creamy, moist, rich in chocolate with sweet and sour cherry that gives this cake super delicious taste! It is so much rich in flavor!

As for the basic chocolate sponge cake, I took the recipe from All Recipes.com.  The preparation of the sponge cake is very simple with only 3 eggs used.  Since no Grade A sized egg available at the nearest grocery store in front of my house, I just used Grade D egg. So, instead of 3, I used 4 eggs in this recipe.  I only have 1 round cake pan, so I baked the cake batter 2 times using the same pan.  If you have 2 pans with bigger oven sized, you can save your time by baking both at a time.

Before you start preparing the sponge cake and cherry filling, place a mixing bowl in a freezer together with the beaters to let them chilled for the whipped cream preparation later.

Lets have a look at the recipe.

BLACK FOREST CAKE

Chocolate Sponge Cake 

The ingredients:

2 cups + 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 teaspoons of baking soda

3/4 cups of cocoa powder 

2 cups of sugar (I reduced to 1 3/4 cups)

3/4 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

3 Grade A eggs (I used 4 Grade D eggs)

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 180''C.  Line a baking paper in your prepared pan and grease the pan with butter.  Used the pan with 8 inch in diameter.
2. Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.  Pour in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add in sugar and salt.  Whisk to combine.
4. Make a hole at the center and pour in milk, vegetable oil, vanilla essence and eggs. Beat the batter using high speed for 1 to 2 minutes, to aerate the batter and to strengthen the cake's texture.
5. Divide the cake batter evenly into 2 prepared cake pans, or if you only have 1 pan, you can bake 1 portion at a time.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack.

While waiting for the cake to cool completely, you can start preparing the cherry filling.

Cherry Filling

The ingredients:

2 containers/cans of sour pitted cherry (each container weigh 500 gm)

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cups of corn flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method:

Drain cherry and reserve 3/4 cups of the cherry juice.  Combine the juice, cherry, corn flour, sugar and vanilla essence in a saucepan.  Cook over low heat until thicken. Let the cherry filling cool completely before using.

Next is the preparation of the whipped cream frosting.

Whipped Cream Frosting

The ingredients:

3 cups of heavy whipping cream (I used 2 cups)

1/3 cups of confectioner or icing sugar (I used 1/4 cups)

Method:

Combine whipping cream with confectioner sugar in a chilled mixing bowl.  Beat at high speed until stiff peak form.

Put some of the whipped cream in a piping bag with nozzle of your choice for decoration.  Keep the whipped cream in fridge until it is ready to use.

For the Garnishes:

Curl chocolate/ grated dark chocolate

Sweet cherries

TO ASSEMBLE THE BLACK FOREST CAKE

Methods:

Cut each cake portion into two layers using a long knife or cake cutter.  So you will have 4 layers of cake. Gently brush the loose crumbs off the cake surface and place 1 layer on the cake plate.

Spread the first later with frosting and top with 4 to 5 tablespoons of cherry filling.  Repeat the steps until the third layer.

Top the fourth layer and frost the side of the cake with the frosting.
Pat chocolate curl or grated chocolate onto the frosting side of the cake.
Pipe the frosting around the top and bottom side of the cake.

Filled the center of the cake with sweet cherry.

I keep the cake inside the fridge without the cake box, I just covered exposed part of the cake with baking paper to prevent them from drying. 

Make this super moist and gorgeous black forest cake for your dessert and next occasions.  It is perfect treat for all especially for chocolate cherry lover!