HOW TO MAKE BLACK FOREST CAKE AT HOME

Black forest cake or Black forest gateau is a very popular and delicious cake in which several layers of chocolate cake are assembled with cream and chopped cherries in between. The cake is then decorated with cream, chocolate shavings and whole cherries. In some places, it is made using liquor obtained from tart cherries. But it can also be prepared using either sugar syrup or orange juice.

Black forest is one of the easiest cakes to make. Just bake a chocolate sponge cake and assemble with other ingredients. This recipe makes 2 cakes.  It tastes so much like the one you get in bakeries. You can reduce the ingredients to half to make 1 cake. And increase or decrease the quantity of cream or cherries according to your preference and serve cold.

Ingredients

2 chocolate sponge cakes
Cherries
Cream
Sugar syrup
1 bar of Cadbury chocolate

Chocolate Cake (makes 2 small cakes)
2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 cups powdered sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
1½ cups milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Cream
2 cups Amul fresh cream refrigerated for at least 2 hours
2 cups powdered sugar
¾ tsp vanilla essence

Sugar syrup
¾ cup water
½ cup powdered sugar

Method

Step 1: Preparing the Chocolate cake

Powder the sugar in a mixer, check that the eggs are at room temperature and keep the butter outside the refrigerator so that it can soften a bit. Softened butter is easier to beat but do not allow it to melt.

Now sieve together maida, baking soda and cocoa powder twice and set aside. Then take a large bowl, add butter and sugar and mix. When both the ingredients are mixed well, add eggs one at a time and beat well. Now add salt, vanilla essence, milk and beat till all the ingredients are well mixed.

Now preheat the oven at 170 degree Celsius with both rods on for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, grease two aluminium cake pans with butter and then flour with maida. Dust away any excess flour and keep the pans ready. Then add the maida-cocoa mix little by little to the egg-butter-sugar mix and mix well either with a wooden spoon or with your hands. Make sure that there are no lumps. Divide this equally between two cake pans such that they are half full and place them in the central rack of the oven. Cook at the same temperature with upper and lower rods on for 20 to 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This recipe makes two cakes of 5 ½” diameter and 1 ½” height.

Step 2: Whipping the Cream

While the cake is getting cooked in the oven, prepare the cream and sugar syrup. To prepare cream, take cold Amul cream in a bowl, add powdered sugar and vanilla essence and beat well using an egg beater, whisk or hand mixer. Place it in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 minutes. Then take it out and beat again till it thickens. Once done place it again in the refrigerator.

Step 3: Preparing the Sugar syrup

Now to prepare sugar syrup, boil water and add powdered sugar. Let the sugar dissolve completely. Then switch off the flame. Allow it to cool.

Step 4: Chocolate shavings and cherries

Then take a bar of chocolate and cut it into strips using a knife. Refrigerate this till the time you assemble the cake otherwise the chocolate will begin to melt.

Wash and wipe dry the cherries and keep ready. You can also chop a few cherries to place it in between layers with cream.

Step 5: Assembling (Final step)

Once the cakes have cooled down completely, cut each cake into 2 or 3 layers. (You can make 2 small cakes or 1 tall cake by placing one on top of the other.) Apply 2 to 3 tbsp of sugar syrup on each layer and keep ready. Place the first layer, apply cream on top and spread well. Then add chopped cherries and place another layer of the cake. Repeat this step till you reach the top. On the topmost layer, spread cream and garnish with chocolate shavings and cherries. You can serve as it is or refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours and serve cold.