Black forest cake always reminds me of birthdays when I was a kid, as this was one of the most common cakes in birthday parties and black forest pastries were one of my favourite as well. One of our friends recently decided to move back to her native Mauritius (so jealous of all the sun and warmth she is going to get while there seems no end to the winter in Scotland in sight!!) and this being her favourite cake I decided to make this for her as a going away thing. The recipe and design for the cake is adapted from dessertsforbreakfast.com, her pictures are SO pretty and I absolutely loved the literal take on ‘black forest’, how very creative is that! Well it was about mid-night by the time I finished baking so my pictures were taken quite hurriedly and I could not really capture the effect due to lack of natural light.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
236 g caster sugar (1 cup)
236 g plain flour (1 cup)
236 g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, beaten lightly
¼ cup vegetable/sunflower oil
½ cup whole milk or semi-skimmed milk
½ cup boiling water
For cherry filling:
283 g dark cherries (about 1 can if using preserved cherries)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp kirsch/ brandy
For chocolate ganache:
85 g dark chocolate, chopped
70 ml whipping or double cream
1 tbsp butter
For cream filling:
1 cup mascarpone cheese
4 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup icing sugar
- Pre-heat the oven to 180˚ C (fan).
- Mix sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
- In another bowl mix together the beaten egg, oil and milk.
- Put the dry ingredients in the food processor and mix. Then put in the wet ingredients in as well and mix till even. Then pour in the boiling water and mix again till the mixture is smooth.
- Divide the cake batter into 2 baking tins (I used 6 inch ones) and bake for about 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before assembling the cake.
I cut off the dome of the cake to flatten out the top
- For the cherry filling: Place the cherries in a saucepan with the sugar. Add cornflour to couple of tbsp of cherry juice from the can and make a paste. Add it to pan and bring the cherries to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in the kirsch and let the mixture cool.
- For the chocolate ganache: Heat the cream and butter in a pan, till it is simmering and then pour it on the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and then slowly whip it to make the ganache smooth.
- For the cream filling: Whip the cheese and cream in a bowl till the mixture forms soft peaks. Add the icing sugar and whip till it forms stiff peaks.
Now to assemble the cake: Take one of the cakes (they should have cooled down by now), layer it with half the chocolate ganache, top it with about 1/3rd of the whipped cream and then add 2/3 of the cherry filling. Top with the other cake, now cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate ganache and whipped cream on the top and sides. Top up with the remaining cherry mix.
I made the decorations by melting chocolate and piping them on a parchment paper, cooling them and then just stuck them to the cake. You can decorate as you want, with chocolate shavings or curls as well.
The ingredient list and the steps involved might make this cake look a bit daunting but honestly this was such an easy cake to make, you just need to get the different components together. The only thing difficult was the number of bowls and pans and pots I had to use, such that I was running out of space in my kitchen!!
Enjoy!
theflourmill 