Black Forest Cake

BLACK FOREST CAKE

                                                                     

Back with a Bang with Black Forest ……  sorry for not updating my blog for the past one month 😞. My little one was having summer vacation and she was with me 24x7.  I was fully occupied playing, coloring, dancing and what not 😕….. Now it’s back to school time and can’t believe my little princess has reached kindergarten 😐. Time just flies …. I am missing her a lot 😢  but the thing is she has to go and that can’t be stopped 😑. How are you guys doing?  I received many messages like why there is no blog update?  Thank you dear friends for all those constant support and encouragement 👍. It was really overwhelming 😊. Again I would like to thank my dear friend Annie for her continuous support 😍. Really blessed to have such friends around 😊. This post is also dedicated to her. She celebrated her anniversary last Monday as she is a chocoholic, surprised her with a black forest cake 🍰.    Hope she liked the surprise as well as the cake 😉. Moving on to the recipe, this is an eggless cake. Have posted white forest cake, both recipes are same expect here you use a chocolate sponge cake. Black forest cake is a very famous German dessert. The cake consists of several layers of chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with whipped cream and cherries. Again whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings are used for the decoration 🍫. Traditionally kirschwasser a clear spirit made from sour cherries is added to the cake. But I usually prefer an alcohol free cake and hence I haven’t used it here. The dessert is not named after black forest mountain range in Germany but from the specialty liquor of that region known as Schwarzwalder Kirsch distilled from tart cherries 🍒. This ingredient gives the dessert its flavor... As mentioned this is an eggless cake you can follow the same recipe to bake an eggless sponge cake. Just avoid the icing and filling. This cake is loved by all as it is perfect for any occasion 👌 ..
Okay then let’s get started.

Preparation time: 40-60 min

Cooking time: 25 -30 min

Serves: 10 -12 slices

INGREDIENTS

All purpose flour / Maida: 1 ½ cups

Cocoa powder: ¼ cup

Baking powder: 2 tsp

Baking soda: 1 tsp

Powdered sugar: 4 tbsp

Vanilla extract: 1 tbsp

Melted Butter /oil: ¾ cup (room temperature)

Sweetened condensed milk:  1 tin

Milk: 1 cup (room temperature)

For icing and filling

Heavy whipping cream: 1 pint (473 ml)

Icing sugar: ½ cup

Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

Maraschino cherries with syrup: as needed

For decoration

Fresh cherries/ maraschino cherries: as needed

Chocolate shavings: as needed

Whipped cream: as needed

1.       Preheat the oven to 300 F/ 150 C.

2.       Prepare a 9' inch baking tin by lining it with parchment paper and grease it with butter.  Set it aside.

3.       Mix flour, cocoa powder baking powder and baking soda. Sift it.
                                                                 

4.       Add condensed milk, melted butter (or oil), milk and vanilla extract to the flour mixture.
                                                                                 

5.       Mix everything together.
                                                                                   

6.       Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin and bake it for 25-30 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
                                                                     

7.       Allow it to cool.                                                    

8.       Chocolate sponge cake is ready.
                                                                                 

9.       Slice the cake in to two or three slices. Keep it aside.

10.    Strain the maraschino cherries and collect the syrup.
                                                           

11.   Chop the strained cherries as shown.
                                                                             

                                                                           

Whipped cream

12.   Chill the glass bowl and blades for 2 hours. Add heavy whipping cream, icing sugar along with vanilla essence to the chilled bowl.
                                                                   

     

13.   Whisk it well until stiff peaks form.
                                                                       

Chocolate shavings

14.   For the chocolate shavings grate the chocolate with the help of a vegetable grater.
                                                                                         

    Assembling of cake

15.   Pick the cake slices with a toothpick and smear the collected maraschino syrup over the cake slices.
                                                                             

16.   Take a cake slice and spread the whipped cream evenly all over.
                                                           

17.   Throw in chopped cherries over it.
                                                                         

18.   Carefully place the other half of the cake and level both the cakes by pressing it gently.
                                                                                   

19.   Spread the whipped cream on top of the cake and cover the sides as well.
                                                                     

20.   Pipe rounds of whipped cream on the top of the cake.
                                                                         

21.   Decorate the cake with cherries and chocolate shavings.
                                                                             

22.   Chill the cake for about 2-3 hours before slicing.

23.   Delicious black forest cake is ready.                  

                                                                     

24.   Slice 
                                                                             

25.   Enjoy.
                                                                                       

Notes

1.       You can replace condensed milk with 3 eggs.

2.       Chilled bowl and blades helps to fasten the process of making whipped cream.

3.       Instead of maraschino syrup you can also use sugar syrup.

4.       You can use two 8’ inch pans instead of one 9’ inch pan and divide the batter equally in to these two pans.