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Our mom is German so it’s no surprise that she loves Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte – Black Forest Cake. As a kid, I never really liked black forest cake because I hated maraschino cherries, and all the store-bought cakes seemed to be covered in them. What’s the point of eating a cake when you don’t like the main filling? It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I tried a bite, probably a homemade version baked by my aunt, and it was fantastic! She used jarred sour cherries, which are more like real fruit and less like candy. Paired with chocolate and whipped cream made them even better!
Black Forest Cake is a classic German torte that consists of whipped cream and cherries sandwiched between layers of chocolate sponge cake, and then frosted with more whipped cream. The sponge cake layers are made with eggs and without any butter – this keeps the sponge flexible and allows it to be cut in rather thin layers without breaking.
Adding the whipped cream stabilizer helps keep the cream from ‘weeping’ after a day or so, while making sure the whipped cream is stiff enough to stand up to being used as a filling.
Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte - Black Forest Cake
Ingredients
For the biscuit bottom:
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
- 1/3 cup butter or margarine
- 125 g flour about 1 cup
- 10 g cocoa powder about 1 Tbsp
- 1 tsp baking powder
For the sponge layers:
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 Tbsp warm water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 3 drops rum flavouring
- 75 g flour 1/2 cup
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 10 g cocoa powder about 1 Tbsp
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
For the filling and frosting:
- 750 g jar of sour cherries in juice or syrup drained
- 4 Tbsp rum
- 500 mL heavy cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2 packets of whipped cream stabilizer
- 1/4 cup chocolate shavings or chocolate chips
Instructions
For the biscuit bottom:
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Grease a 9" springform cake pan.
- In a mixing bowl, blend the sugar, vanilla sugar, and butter or margarine.
- Add in the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder and stir until well incorporated.
- Press into the springform pan to create a cookie disc.
- Bake for 15 minutes; remove from oven and let cool.
For the sponge layers:
- Set oven to 375F.
- Grease a 9-inch springform cake pan.
- In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks, warm water, sugar, and vanilla sugar until the mixture is thick and light yellow. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Beat in the rum flavouring.
- In a small bowl, sift together the flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, and baking powder.
- Alternating with the egg whites, gently fold the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture until well combined.
- Spread evenly in the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool. Once cool, remove cake from pan and slice horizontally to create two cake layers.
For the filling and frosting:
- Stir the cherries with the rum, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla sugar, and whipped cream stabilizer until stiff peaks form. Stir in 2 Tbsp of the cherry rum soaking liquid. Set aside.
To assemble:
- Place a small dollop of cream on your cake platter to prevent the cake from sliding around.
- Place the biscuit bottom on the cake platter. sprinkle half the cherries over the biscuit bottom, then spread about 1/4 of the whipped cream over the cherries. Top with one of the sponge cake layers.
- Sprinkle about 2 Tbsp of the cherry rum soaking liquid over the sponge cake layer. Top with the remaining cherries, then spread about 1/4 of the whipped cream over the cherries. Top with the second sponge cake layer.
- With the remaining whipped cream, frost the top and sides of the cake. You can decorate the cake with chocolate shavings or chocolate chips, which is what I did.
- Let sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Yum! What a pretty and delicious looking cake! My dad would love it too!
I love baking and I am always looking for new recipes to give a try. This cake looks delicious and I am looking forward to making it. Pinned! Have a Great Week!! 🙂
Einer meiner Lieblingskuchen! Thank You so much for sharing this awesome German Cake recipe! Love it!
Beautiful Cake! Looks delicious! Thank you so much for coming over and sharing it with us this week at Brag About It!
~Laurie
This is the real deal. My daughter’s favorite cake. Have to always make it for her birthday. There are a lot of versions out there, none like this. Adding this to my recipe file and going to use it for her cake this year. Thanks for linking today at Party at My Place.
Chocolate and cherries sounds like a great combo to me!
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Yummy. Pinned. Shared. Best wishes for a great weekend. Linda @Crafts a la mode
[…] No-Sew Fleece Blanket – USS Crafty (bottom) Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte – Black Forest Cake – Kiku […]
Sooo Yummmy! I love black forest cakes and thank you for providing us such wonderful black forest cake recipe. I definitely try this at my home and will share my experience with you. Great work!