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Food Category
Cuisine Category
- Cuisine: German
- Serves 10
The exact origin of this layered chocolate, cherry and kirsch cake is unclear, but one thing is for sure: It's a culinary challenge everyone should try at least once.
For a darker cake, you can use Dutch cocoa in the sponge, but it will give a slightly drier result.
Ingredients
80ml (⅓ cup) kirsch*600g frozen cherries, defrosted, drained on paper towel
Chocolate curls and grated chocolate, to decorate
Pastry base
60g cold unsalted butter, chopped
125g plain flour
55g (¼ cup) caster sugar
1 tbs ground almonds
1 lemon, zested
1 egg yolk
Chocolate sponge
60g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
75g unsalted butter, chopped, at room temperature
165g (¾ cup) caster sugar
6 eggs
50g (⅓ cup) plain flour
75g (½ cup) cornflour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Cream filling
2 tbsp powdered gelatine
1.2L thickened cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate ganache
200ml thickened cream
400g dark chocolate
(70% cocoa solids), chopped
Preparation
To make base, preheat oven to 170°C. Process butter and flour in a food processor until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sugar, ground almonds, lemon zest and egg yolk, and process to a firm dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to a 23cm round and place on a lined oven tray. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool.To make sponge, increase oven to 180°C. Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate has melted (don’t let bowl touch the water). Set aside to cool slightly. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs on high speed for 8 minutes or until mixture triples in volume. Stir in chocolate mixture until combined. Sift flours, cocoa and ½ tsp salt in a bowl and fold through chocolate egg mixture. Grease a 22cm springform pan. Dust with flour and line base with baking paper. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes in pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make filling, scatter gelatine over 2 tbsp hot water in a small bowl. Whisk to dissolve, then strain, discarding solids. Whisk cream to soft peaks, then fold through gelatine and vanilla. Reserve one-third of the cream in a separate bowl for topping. Cover and refrigerate cream.
To make ganache, heat cream in a saucepan over medium heat until just boiling. Place chocolate in a bowl, pour over the hot cream and cover with plastic wrap. Stand for 10 minutes, then stir until smooth and combined. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until starting to thicken.
To assemble cake, cut sponge into 4 layers horizontally*. Place pastry on a platter. Spoon over a thin layer of chocolate ganache and top with 1 sponge layer. Drizzle with 1 tbsp kirsch, then top with one-third of the cream filling and one-third of the cherries. Add another sponge layer, 1 tbsp kirsch and half the remaining cream. Repeat the layering process with 1 more sponge, 1 tbsp kirsch, remaining cream and half the remaining cherries. Top with remaining sponge layer and drizzle with remaining 1 tbsp kirsch.
Spread top and sides of cake with the remaining ganache and refrigerate for 10 minutes or until firm. Spread the top and sides of cake with reserved cream, adding a few dollops on top of cake. Decorate cake with remaining cherries, chocolate curls and grated chocolate. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving to allow the flavours to develop.
* Kirsch is a clear, unsweetened cherry brandy available from bottle shops.
* For ease, cut the cake into horizontal layers by using fishing wire; wrap the wire around the cake and pull through cake firmly.
If you enjoyed this Black Forest cake recipe then browse more German recipes, dessert recipes, cake recipes, child-friendly recipes, chocolate recipes, entertaining recipes, baking recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
German Restaurants
Displaying 10 of 57 German Restaurants.
| Restaurant | Book Online | Suburb | |
| 1. | German Arms Hotel | Hahndorf | |
| 2. | Vienna Restaurant | Kambah | |
| 3. | De Bortoli Winery and Restaurant | Dixons Creek | |
| 4. | Maximilian's | Verdun | |
| 5. | Eiger Swiss Restaurant | Petersham | |
| 6. | Hofbrauhaus | Melbourne | |
| 7. | Hahndorf Inn Hotel & Cellars | Hahndorf | |
| 8. | Harmonie German Club | Narrabundah | |
| 9. | Elmar's in the Valley | Henley Brook | |
| 10. | Lowenbrau Keller | The Rocks |
Comments (4)
25 Apr 2013 04:39 AEST
Nel
Melbourne
Don't recommend this recipe
My friend and I are experienced baker. We tried making this yesterday but it was horrible. Firstly, I haven't encountered black forest that has a pastry base like that. The pastry was so dry and crumbly that we had to add another yolk to hold it in shape.
Secondly, the ganache set hard and added a hard texture and bitter taste to the cake when it shouldn't. Thirdly, the sponge didn't rise up a lot so I have to agree with Ann that I could cut into two only.
Agree(0 people agree)
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18 Apr 2013 02:08 AEST
dan
adelaide
20 Jan 2013 09:12 AEST
Lana
Chippendale
Yummy!
Be prepared to spend a day in the kitchen with this one, but the taste is well worth the trouble.
True is it easy to overcook the cake batter but with lashings of cream and the chocolate gnache the contrast in textures is a wonder on the palate.
14 May 2012 11:54 AEST
Ann
Sydney
Not so good - I don't recommend it
I'm no cake expert so a better pastry chef probably wouldn't have the same problems. But for me, the sponge was overcooked and very dry, even when I took it out ten minutes early. The sponge didn't rise alot so I could only cut it in half. I found the cherry liquer made everything a bit too runny & the cream and ganache started to ooze from the sides. The pastry base was too crumbly and didn't hold together. Overall the taste was OK but a bit bitter and needed more sweetness.
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