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Black Forest Cake - The Oregon Twist

Cherry season in Oregon is very inspiring, generous bounties of the fertile soil, bring the price so down in summer, making it very affordable to buy bags and bags of plum ripe cherries for testing out all the cherry recipes you fancy. During my first cherry season here, we sequentially went through buying, picking, pitting and canning sprees, which were followed by equally memorable pie and tart making episodes. Nowadays, during the season I am more into exploring different preservation methods for good. After thinking through cherry pies and tarts I decided on making something less “cherry filled” to take for a graduation party we had last weekend and this Oregon twist of a Black forest cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte) was made. Traditionally a black forest gateau ( torte/cake) has fine layers of chocolate cake/cake biscuit liberally drizzled with cherry brandy( Kirshwasser- made from finest Morello cherries from the Black forest region of Germany ) , filled with cherries, topped with whipped cream and decorated with fine shavings of chocolate. I love exploring what I call " the cakes of the world", regional gourmet specialty cakes, which reflect the culinary attitudes or traditions of a particular region or a period. Often moderately decorated, these cakes leave a signature taste to remember. My fellow gastronome, T, expresses his discontent every time we try out a piece of BFC from the restaurants here, declaring that there is nothing like the original Black forest cake. He lived in southern Germany for a while, and had many helpings of this fabulous torte while he was there, so I trust his judgment on this matter. In this version of BFC, I followed the original method of assembling the cake, used Oregon grown Bing cherries in homemade syrup, substituted cherry brandy with homemade cherry liquor (which is sweet, cherry brandy is not) made from last year’s harvest. There is perhaps no doubt that BFC tastes best when it is made with the original ingredients, but this version has a personality of its own, tastes much better than the ones made with cherry pie filling or canned cherries. . You could substitute rum for cherry liquor or completely avoid the alcohol and use cherry syrup instead. Assembling this cake is a breeze, if you have a flan ring handy (A Cake pan with out bottom is a humble flan ring- find it here) Check out the step by step photos of assembling this cake here

Prepare cake layers, cherries in syrup, whipped cream, grated chocolate and pitted cherries before assembling the cake.

This cake is my entry to fellow Portland blogger Je Mange la Ville's Celebratory Cake-athon 2006 event marking the first anniversary of her spectacular blog. Happy Birthday, may your blog live long and thrive!!!!

Tags Cake blackforest

Cake

1 ¾ cups flour

2 cups white sugar

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two nine inch round pans. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in hot water. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven,until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out dry. Cool in the pans for1 hour, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
This cake has a dry texture, but turns very moist when drizzled with syrup.

Stabilized Whipped cream filling

3 cups heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ tsp rum/cherry liquor

1 tsp Unflavored Gelatin

3 tsp water

Soak gelatin in 2 tsp water for 5 minutes, add 1 tsp water and melt over a boiling water bath or in a microwave. Cool to room temperature. Beat cream till soft peaks form, sprinkle sugar, add rum and beat again. Pour in Gelatin and beat well till stiff peak consistency is achieved. Refrigerate till use.


Cherries in syrup

Pitted fresh cherries – 1 ½ cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Cherry liquor / rum - 1 tbsp

Mix sugar and water, boil in a thick bottomed pan, with constant stirring, till the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens. Add cherries, remove from fire, add liquor/rum, keep it covered for 10-12 hours. Drain cherries on a sieve; reserve the syrup for moistening the cake.

* Coming soon as a separarte post-- Homemade cherry liquor

For garnishing

Pitted fresh cherries

Tools for pitting - Invest on a cherry pitter or use simple dedicated slant tweezers

Grated chocolate – Using a vegetable peeler/ melon baller / cookie cutter, shave off fine flakes from a block of chocolate ( use a chocolate bar instead)



Assembling the cake

1) Slice the baked cakes horizontally using a serrated knife to make one 0.75 to 1 inch thick layer from each cake ( remove the top part of each of these cakes)

2) Place one layer of cake on a serving plate; position the flan ring to enclose the cake.

3) Sprinkle with 3 tbsp of cherry syrup

4) Spread whipped cream in 1 inch thickness ( more if you have a 4inch high flan ring)

5) Embed drained cherries in the whipped cream.

6) Keep the second cake layer on top

7) Sprinkle 3 tbsp cherry syrup

8) Top with more whipped cream, level the surface.

9) Refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hrs.

10) Remove the flan ring, liberally spread chocolate shavings on the top

11) Pipe whipped cream in any desired shape and top with cherries.

12) Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Tagsblackforest cake cherry liquer chocolate cream

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