The recipe for black forest cake is up! This is actually the second time I have made this cake. Both were for friends’ birthday. The first time was for a friend’s 21st. This time was for a friend’s 26th. This is sure a crowd pleaser 😀
Ingredients:
Sponge:
200 g cake flour, sifted (If no cake flour, substitute with plain and corn flour. 170 g plain flour + 30 g corn flour)
50 g cocoa powder, sifted
130 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100 g icing sugar
140 g egg yolks, at room temperature
270 g egg whites, at room temperature
190 g caster sugar
Cherry compote:
400 g of cherries (I use Morello cheeries in a glass bottle)
100 g sugar
20 ml kirschwasser (which is a cherry flavoured liqueur but not sweet)
12 g corn flour, add 15 ml cold water to dissolve
Creme d’or
270 ml chilled double cream
250 g chocolate (~55-65%), chopped into bits
Creme Chantilly
500 ml chilled double cream
100 g icing sugar
To finish
~240 ml kirschwasser-flavoured simple syrup (I just mix 240 ml kirschwasser with ~3 tbs sugar, depending on how you like the sweetness, boil to dissolve sugar and set aside)
Few cherries
Instructions:
1) For sponge, line 2×20 cm cake pans. Preheat the oven to 177 degree C.
2) Combine the sifted flour and cocoa powder. Beat butter with icing sugar until light and fluffy, roughly 4 minutes (scraping down the sides time to time).
3) Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
4) In another clean bowl, whip the egg whites with caster sugar. Beat on low at first to get aeration, add caster sugar and beat on high till stiff peaks (take ~5 minutes).
5) Fold about ~1/3 meringue into butter mixture to lighten it so that folding will be easier. Fold another 1/3 meringue until it is just blended. Repeat until all meringue is mixed in. There should be no lumps.
6) Pour an equal portion of the batter into prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes or until surface is an even brown and skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7) Cool cakes in pans and then onto wire racks.
8) For cherry compote, combine cherries with sugar and kirschwasser in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to boil. Stir in the corn flour mixture into the boiling cherries. Return mixture to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Lower heat to a bare simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for ~3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and starchy/floury taste has cooked out. Remove from heat and set aside.
9) For creme d’or, whip the cream on medium for ~4 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Set aside to come to room temperature. Using a bain-marie, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently to ensure all melted. Fold the hot chocolate into the whipped cream.
10) For creme Chantilly, whip the cream on low to increase aeration for ~1 minute, then add icing sugar and increase speed to medium and beat for ~4 minutes or until firm peaks form.
11) To assemble, even off the top surface of each cake, then cut each cake crosswise into 2 equal layers. There will be some left-over and such a good breakfast substitute or as snacks!
12) Place one cake layer, cut side up, coat the surface with kirschwasser-flavoured simple syrup generously using a pastry brush, allowing to soak into the cake.
13) Place creme d’or in a pastry bag fitted with the #4 or $5 plain tip. Pipe 3 concentric rings onto each cake layer. Fill in the spaces with the cherry compote (as shown in photo above). Alternatively, use spatula and spread an even layer of creme d’or, then place cherry compote on top.
14) Place a second cake layer on top and repeat step 12 to 13.
15) Place the final cake layer, cut side down, on top of the cake and generously coat surface with syrup. [The cake may be made up to this point and stored, covered and refrigerated for 1 day].
16) Cover the cake with creme chantilly, neating the edges with an offset spatula.
17) Decorate the cake however you want! I pipe some creme d’or around the top edges of the cake and top each rosette with a cherry. You could use chocolate shavings too!! Place them all around the bottom edge of the cake, who wouldn’t love more chocolate shavings?!
Serve the cake immediately or within a few hours. Refrigerate the cake until ready to use.
Notes:
1) Still need to work on my decorating techniques for this cake. Just learnt that I can actually remove the surface layer of a cake. By removing the top tiny layer, I could avoid all the crumbs sticking to my icing when decorating.
2) Icing with creme chantilly is not easy to deal with. I think it is better to chill it first before using it so that it can stay on the cake.
There you go the recipe for this awesome cake! The cake turned out better the second time I made it. So don’t give up when something doesn’t go right. Keep trying! The more you try, the more tricks you are gonna learn and in the end you will make the ultimate cake ever! This goes with life too!
Selamat makan! 🙂