Black Forest Cake!

So, I have been craving one of these cakes for months and I finally made one last weekend! I decided to follow this recipe from allrecipes.com but I made a few changes. I didn't make a real German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, because I didn't use any Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries), or any other alcohol for that matter. One day I would like to try my hand at a cake with Kirschwasser, but in the meantime, this cake was both affordable and delicious!

Recipe and more photos under the cut. Enjoy!

Here are most of my ingredients: 

(I always seem to leave something out of this picture. Lol.)

RECIPE:
 

For the Cake:

• 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbs vanilla extract 

For the Cherries:

• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans Red Tart Cherries in Water 
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Whipped Cream:

• 4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

First preheat your oven to 350° F (I set mine at 325°F because my oven is overly hot). Grease and flour two 9 inch, round cake pans; cover bottoms with waxed paper. Set these aside. Also, place a medium/large bowl and whisk in the freezer for the whipped cream.

Next you're going to want to start cooking the Cherries so they will have plenty of time to cool. Drain the cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Combine reserved juice, cherries, 1 cup sugar, and cornstarch in a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened. (I ended up pouring out just a bit of the liquid and continued to cook for a few moments). Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set saucepan on a wire rack to cool. 

This is the end result!

Go ahead and start on your cake as soon as you get the cherries on the stove.

In a large bowl: combine flour, 2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, milk, oil, and 1 tbs vanilla. Beat until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans. 

Bake for 35 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. (I started checking my cake at about 25 minutes and took it out around 30). Cool layers in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen edges with a sharp knife and remove to rack to cool completely. 

Yay Chocolate Cake! ^_^

Next combine the whipping cream and confectioner's sugar (this whipped cream is not super sweet, which is how I prefer it) in the chilled bowl beat with a whisk (or an electric mixture) until stiff peaks form. Cover and place in the refrigerator until you're ready to decorate. 

For the chocolate shavings on the side, I bought 2 Cadbury Dairy Milk bars:

I kept the bars in the refrigerator until I was ready to use them. I ended up using only all of one bar for the shavings and just a few squares of the second bar. I used the leftover squares to create a border around the bottom of the cake. I shred the chocolate over a plate using a small handheld cheese grater.

To assemble/decorate the cake:  

• With long serrated knife, split each cake layer horizontally in half. 
• Reserve 1 1/2 cups whipped cream for decorating cake; set aside. 
• Gently brush loose crumbs off top and side of each cake layer with pasty brush or hands. 
•  Place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread generous helping of whipped cream over the layer. 
• Top with 1/2 to 3/4 cup cherries. 
• Top with second cake layer; repeat layers of whipped cream and cherries. 
• Top with third cake layer; repeat layers of whipped cream and cherries.  
• Top with fourth layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with whipped cream. 
• Next apply chocolate shavings to the sides of the cake. (I simply did it by hand.)
• Spoon reserved frosting into pastry bag fitted with star decorator tip. Pipe around top and bottom edges of cake. Spoon remaining cherry topping onto top of cake

 

.

And there you have it!

I was very excited with the way this turned out. The only real hiccups I encountered were having a little too much liquid in the cherries. And I, for some dumb reason, piped the bottom border and then put on the chocolate shavings (which were getting melty so there's probably a better way to do that than by hand). This naturally resulted into the chocolate pile going round the bottom of the cake. I used the Cadbury squares to add to the border and make it look like it did that on purpose. Lol. I also had a little trouble with air bubble in my pastry bag, but whipped cream is very forgiving and easy to work with, so it was fine. 

All in all, I am super happy with my first Black Forest Cake, 
and I can't wait to try it again!

Thanks so much for reading!

- Christine Frankenstein