The Black Forest cake is one of the most popular and well-known German cakes ever. It tastes really really wonderful: chocolaty, creamy, fruity! The preparation is a little time consuming, but with this simple recipe, even beginners succeed in making their first real Black Forest Cherry cake.
Why is my recipe particularly suitable for beginners? Because it's a bit different than the others. Actually the classic Black Forest cake is made with biscuit (and some additional shortcrust pastry), my version is made of simple chocolate batter. In addition, my Black Forest cake is non-alcoholic, without gelatin, and without eggs. This makes it suitable for pregnant women, kids, and vegetarians.
For sure - the preparation takes a bit of time - but in comparison to other recipes, it is really quick. If you want a super-fast version of the cake you need to make the Black Forest cake with the bought ground. In this case, I would recommend you dark Viennese cake base. But homemade it tastes so much better. And above all, the Black Forest cake with sponge batter and melted chocolate is really juicy and super chocolaty.
Since batter is moister and juicier than biscuit anyway, the cake grounds do not really need to be soaked at all. The fruity component is already present through the thickened cherries. I only use cherry juice for that; Of course you can of course also take a portion of kirsch, if the pie is to be shot 😉.
The Black Forest Cake as Naked Cake
Currently I like to bake the Black Forest cake as a Naked Cake, where you can see the individual layers from the outside. Since I'm not a big cake artist, mine does not look quite as perfect as with people really into cake design, but I like it. With a little bit more whipped cream you can of course coat the edges completely with this recipe.
Although cherries are summer fruits, the simple Black Forest cake is somehow an autumn cake for me. Then just with cherries from the glass. I wish you a delightful autumn time with my classic recipe!
Black Forest Cake
Ingredients
For the dough
- ½ cup 110 grams soft butter
- ½ cup 100 grams sugar
- 3 medium sized eggs
- 1 cup 120 grams flour (possibly half cornstarch)
- 1 cup 120 grams ground almonds or hazelnuts
- 3 teaspoons of baking powder
- ½ cup 90 grams melted bittersweet chocolate
- roughly ½ cup 100 milliliters milk
For filling and decoration
- 2 cups 250 grams cherries from the glass, drained
- ⅓ cup 80 milliliters cherry juice
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 2 cups 450 milliliters cream
- 2 packs cream stabilizer
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- Chocolate grater at will
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit top and bottom heat. Grease a small pan and dust with some cocoa. Carefully melt the chocolate in a hot water bath.
- Whisk the soft butter with the sugar and stir in the eggs one after the other. Mix flour with almonds or nuts and baking powder. Stir in dry ingredients, alternating with the chocolate. Gradually add the milk until the dough falls off the spoon.
- Fill the dough into the prepared pan, smooth it out and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Let cool down.
- Drain the cherries, collect the juice and set aside about 10 beautiful cherries for the decoration.
- Separate 80 ml of the juice. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of the juice. Boil remaining juice with 1 tbsp icing sugar. Stir in the stewed starch, add cherries. Let cool down.
- Cut the bottom of the cake twice horizontally - either with a large sharp knife or a crossed string. Beat the cream until stiff, pour in creamy and powdered sugar.
- Place the bottom cake on a cake plate. Using a piping bag, spray a cream ring as a "border". Spread half of the thickened cherries on the cake base, spread with about a quarter of the cream. Put on the second floor and do the same: spray cream as a border, spread cherries and a quarter of the cream on the floor. Add around 3 tbsp of cream to the piping bag.
- Put on the third floor and brush with cream. Cream cuffs as a deco splash. Put cherries on. Decorate the cake with chocolate shavings or crumbles as desired. Cool before cutting.
Notes
- The cake is already very juicy from the batter even without additionally soaking the soil.
- If you like, you can replace part of the juice with kirsch.
- It is a Naked Cake, where the edge is not covered. If you want to coat the cake with cream, you need arond 3 cups (500-600 mililiters) of cream. In this case, the "cream ring" as a limitation is not necessary: just spread the cherries on the floors and pour in cream.
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