Black Forest cake is the most decadent dessert with lots of chocolate, whipped cream, and sour cherries. It’s the perfect showstopper to serve at the end of dinner on a cold winter day, but I must say, I have been seen eating this cake at breakfast on a hot summer day as well. A luxurious chocolate cake is always in season.
Chocolate paradise city and romantic cherries
I have eaten a black forest cake for the first time at the birthday party of my friend Valeria. The first bite brought me to chocolate paradise city. Since then, I tried to replicate that experience at home.
My rich chocolate sponge is infused with the juice of sour cherries, for a sweet note of acid. However, the recipe traditionally calls for Kirsh, a deliciously sweet cherry liqueur. It’s very difficult to find this liqueur in the UK, so if you want to add a boozy taste to your cake you can go for a few spoons of brandy instead.
In the middle of the cake, you’ll find lots of sour cherries and even more chocolate flakes. This cake originates from Germany, specifically from the beautiful Black Forest area. It’s tradition for newlyweds to plant cherry trees there, so the abundance of sour cherries in the region. So romantic!
All the flavours are combined with light whipped cream. Whipped cream is much more common in traditional old cakes. Forget rich buttercream and cheese frosting. Using only double cream is incredibly tricky though, it’s not as thick as other creams and it’s essential you refrigerate the cake as soon as you finish piping and let it chill for a few hours before serving it.
Sweet memories
As I said, the first time I had this cake was at the birthday party of my friend Valeria. I got to know her at a summer camp.
As a teenager, I was lucky enough to study English abroad at special summer camps. To be fair, these holidays were not very much about studying English, but surviving with so many teenagers’ hormones.
We barely slept for 14 days and so much drama was happening in just two weeks that you felt 14 years older by the time you came back home.
Love, revenge, broken hearts, pride, friendship, and dreams. Jane Austin’s novels are probably based on summer camps.
On my first summer camp, I was three years younger than anyone else – that’s the equivalent of three centuries in teenagers’ life. I was so shy and felt quite isolated.
One day though I met Valeria, her laugh was pure cheer. We talked for ages so comfortable in each other company. I still remember the acute feeling of warmth in my heart, finding a kindred spirit made me feel like I belonged. Friends are truly a lifeline.
Someone for us
Since then, I believe that there is always a person for us everywhere we go. We might not find it immediately, and sometimes it might take us a very long time before we recognise them. But there will always be someone who cares about us in the world, someone to find so, in turn, we can find ourselves.
I repeated this mantra, there is always someone for us, every time I’ve moved country, every time I decided to change my life, or simply every time I felt lonely. It helped me to get out there, make new friends, start out new adventures, be brave, and feel relevant to the world.
There is always someone for us, we are not alone.
Black forest cake might be the emblem of a beautiful region of Germany, but to me, it’ll always be a symbol of friendship.
Black Forest Cake
Course: Something SweetDifficulty: Medium20
minutes30
minutes30
minutesBlack Forest cake is the most decadent dessert with lots of chocolate, whipped cream, and sour cherries. It’s the perfect showstopper to serve at the end of dinner on a cold winter day, but I must say, I have been seen eating this cake at breakfast on a hot summer day as well. A luxurious chocolate cake is always in season.
Ingredients
- The cake
6 eggs
a pinch of salt
220 g plain flour
30 g cornflour
200 g sugar
40 g cocoa powder
10 g baking powder
4 g baking soda
50 g lukewarm water
- Filling & Decoration
500 g sour black cherries and syrup
3 tbsp water
600 ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
30 g dark chocolate
Optional: 2 spoons of brandy or kirsch
- Equipment
22 cm cake tin
Optional: A piping bag (I’ve used a star nozzle)
Method
- The Cake
- Whip egg whites with 20 g sugar and a pinch of salt until they have a firm cloudy consistency.
- Add one yolk at a time and water and slowly stir in.
- Sift the dry ingredients and slowly stir them in. Stir from the top to the bottom so as not to lose the air of the egg whites – this is a long and tedious task but essential to have a fluffy sponge. Make sure you don’t have any flour left.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 180 C (fan oven) and let the cake cool down for at least one hour.
- The filling
- Open your jar of sour cherries: divide the cherries from the juice. Add three spoons of water to the cherry syrup. You can also add here one-two spoons of brandy or kirsch for a hint of alcohol. Leave the syrup aside. Chop the chocolate very finely into light flakes.
- Slice the cake in the middle with a long bread knife. Drizzle the two sponges with syrup.
- Whisk the cream with two spoons of icing sugar (make sure to sift it beforehand, you don’t want any lumps!)
- Assembling the cake
- Let’s now assemble the cake! Add one layer of cream above the first layer of the sponge. Add around 30 cherries and 20 g of chocolate flakes.
- Stack the second layer of sponge on top. Spread the cream on the top with the help of a knife. Gently sprinkle chocolate flakes at the centre of the cake. Decorate the borders and the centre of the cake with dots of whipped cream with the help of a piping bag. I’ve used a star nozzle for a proper decadent finish, use a round nozzle for a more modern look. Add one cherry to every other cream dot to finish off this vintage cake.
- Best to refrigerate the cake for two hours before serving – but of course eat it straight away if you are greedy like me!
Notes
- Use a long bread knife to cut the cake. Keep one of your hands on top of the cake to evenly slice the cake.
- I like whipped cream when it’s not too sweet, that’s why I have added only two spoons of sugar. For a sweeter cream add up to four spoons of sugar.
