Black Forest Cake is JT’s favourite cake. It’s been his favourite since he was a little kid. In fact, it was our wedding cake! We didn’t have that traditional fruit cake, it was Black Forest Cake all the way. In late February, we were invited to dinner at friends’ and I offered to bring dessert so JT asked me to bake a Black Forest Cake. I chose this recipe because of the unusual cake recipe, to be honest, it turned out a bit dry because I did not soak the layers in the cherry kirschwasser syrup as indicated; I didn’t want to use the full strength Kirschwasser as there was a teenager but I would definitely do it if I were to bake this cake again, I might even omit the kirschwasser so it’s not as boozy. Or maybe I’ll double it!
Black Forest Cake
For the original recipe, please click here.
Ingredients:
- 70 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 200 g sugar
- 6 eggs
- 150 g flour
- 105 g cornstarch
- 45 g cocoa powder
- 5 g salt
- 250 mL jarred, canned or frozen (see notes) sour cherries, drained, reserving 1⁄2 cup cherry juice from jar, plus 16 cherries, to garnish
- 125 mL Kirschwasser
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F (I used the convection setting).
- Prepare two spring-form pans about 20 cm (8 inches) diameter by buttering and flouring the bottom and sides. Cust a piece of parchment to fit the bottom and butter and flour it too.
- Combine sugar and eggs in the large bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on medium speed for about 8 minutes or until tripled in volume.
- Combine the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt and whisk. Sift into the egg and sugar mixture and fold until combined. Pour in the cooled melted butter and stir until just combined.
- Pour about half of the batter into each pan and bake for 30-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool completely.
Kirschwasser syrup:
Ingredients:
- 250 mL jarred, canned or frozen sour cherries, drained, reserving 125 mL cherry juice and 12 cherries for garnish
- 30-75 mL kirschwasser (I was making this kid-friendly so I barely used any)
- 100 g sugar
Directions:
- Combine cherries with the kirschwasser and allow to macerate for 30 minutes. If using frozen cherries, just marinate the cherries in the kirschwasser until defrosted and reserve the liquid as indicated in the ingredients.
- Meanwhile, combine the reserved cherry juice with the sugar and bring to a boil until sugar dissolves.
- Drain macerated cherries and add the liquid to the cherry syrup. Set aside. If using frozen cherries, skip this step.
Whipped Cream Frosting:
Ingredients:
- 10 g unflavored powdered gelatin
- 250 mL milk, divided
- 65 g 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 45 g sugar
- 500 mL 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
- 5 mL 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 50-60 g dark chocolate, melted and piped onto paper, see notes below.
Directions:
- Sprinkle gelatin over 90 mL milk in a bowl; let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Whisk cornstarch and sugar in a medium saucepan and add remaining milk, heat over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly to thicken the mixture.
- Using a stick blender, blend this thick mixture with the softened gelatin and blend until very smooth (if you choose to skip this step, your whipped cream will be lumpy. You can also press it through a fine seive if you don’t want to blend). Set aside to cool a bit.
- Beat the whipping cream with the vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk until soft peaks form.
- Add about 1⁄3 of the whipped cream to the gelatin mixture and stir until smooth.
- Add gelatin mixture to the remaining whipping cream in the stand mixer bowl and whip until smooth.
Assembly Instructions:
- Crumb-coat the cake with the whipped cream mixture. Place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and drizzle onto parchment like this. Refrigerate the drizzled chocolate on a flat surface until set (you don’t want it super stiff).
- Add a thicker coating of the whipped cream to the cake and smooth out. Leave enough whipped cream to decorate with cherry florets.
- Decorate the top of the cake with the remaining chocolate and then add florets, press one cherry into each floret.
- Lift the hardened drizzled chocolate from the base parchment and carefully wrap all-the-way around the cake; remove the outside parchment slowly. Refrigerate until required.
Notes:
- The whipped cream is a bit like French Pastry cream but not as rich. It is far thicker and richer than stabilized whipped cream. I loved the whipped cream.
- This is not a sweet cake by any stretch of the imagination, but it is flavourful and our friends loved that it wasn’t sweet.
- For the chocolate drizzles, measure the diameter of the iced cake and not the pan, I measured the exterior of the pan and came out too short because I didn’t account for the extra thickness of the frosting. It was easy to fix but why fix if you can do it right the first time.
- Do not skip soaking the cake layers in the syrup, otherwise, the cake is very dry.
- If I were to do this cake again, I would make fewer drizzles on the chocolate wrap so that the creamy texture of the cake below it comes through.
It might have been a bit dry but the presentation is absolutely stunning. I love the chocolate work. It’s one of my most favourite cakes too; I love the sour cherry flavour with the dark chocolate. Great work my friend xx
LikeLike
Thank you so much for the accolades, Charlie. It was fun to make. I used actual sour cherries this time (frozen from Europe) so it was really special.
LikeLike
Eva, what an impressive beautiful cake! I know it’s not obvious to make a good (and presentable!) black forest cake, so huge congratulations!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, I am so flattered Sissi, thank you so much for your lovely compliment.
LikeLike
I love Black Forest Cake. The convection setting in your oven makes all baked goods dry out more quickly, as it wafts away the protecting layer of moist air that will form around those goods while they are baking. That is also why it bakes faster, but it comes at a price. Black Forest Cake at your wedding — I love it! Perhaps you should give the recipe on my blog a try (https://stefangourmet.com/2012/03/31/black-forest-cake/).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did not think of that, but of course you are right! I wonder if I added a bowl of water for humidity next time? Or I’ll use a tried and true recipe like the one on your blog, thank you for the link.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love black forest, and also love a cake that’s not too sweet. Butter cakes are so tricky. You’ve got to catch them at the precise moment that they’re done, but even so, a lot of bakers soak them as a matter of course. I’ll bet the kirshwasser combined with the cherries isn’t too boozy – not for me, anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your comment Jeff, I had never made a butter cake before so it was dumb luck that it even worked out. I may try it again to see if I could do it without being dry.
LikeLike
Love the flavor of kirschwasser, so I’d double the amount. 🙂 Terrific looking cake — I’ve never made one. Don’t recall if Mrs KR has or not (she’s the baker) but don’t think she has. We gotta try this! Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks John, Mrs KR will really rock this recipe. Hope you like it too.
LikeLike
This is so beautiful. It wasn’t until I had black forest cake in Germany when I realized how sweet – actually, overly sweet – all of the cakes I’d had growing up had been!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your kind words Chef Mimi. I am not a huge fan of sweet desserts, they just make my teeth tingle.
LikeLike
My teeth can hurt just looking at photos of cakes!
LikeLike
Looking at this masterpiece make me think that I’ve never had a “proper” Black Forest Cake. Only pale imitators. GREG
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are very kind words, Greg, thank you.
LikeLike
Beautiful cake and the chocolate wrap makes it look like a fancy patisserie sold it to you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is very nice of you to say, thanks so much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved Black Forest Cake as a kid too! How can you go wrong with all that chocolate, whipped cream and cherries! This one looks really decadent – and incredibly beautiful. Your dinner hosts must have been blown away!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you kindly Michela, the cake went over very well. In fact, my friend’s son had two additional helpings and then she took it to her elderly parents and they loved it.
LikeLike
One of my favourites! Yours looks so beautiful with that decorative chocolate net, Eva.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Angie, I had a lot of fun making it.
LikeLike