Cake #17 - Black Forest Cake

Sunday Classic Cake - Black Forest Cake.

I was looking for the perfect recipe for a Black Forest Cake/Gâteau / Schwarzwald/wälder Kirschtorte/Kuchen... you know this traditional German cherry and chocolate cake which seems to have not only various names but also spellings and especially looks, too. What does not change, however, is the delicious combination of cherries and chocolate. 

I ended up choosing this revamped Black Forest Gâteau on BBC GoodFood website to deliberately avoid any debate whether or not my cake looks like a real Black Forest Cake. In the end it did not look like the GoodFood cake, either. But a baker has her ways to save what can be saved. 

Architect covers it with vine and doctor covers it with sod. Chef covers it with sauce and baker covers it with whipped cream. - Mistake or failure, that is.

If the mistake is not fatal - you really cannot save a burned cake - there is a lot you can do and you should do!! I tried my best. And when the taste is a success that is what counts in the end anyway.

The essentials: can of black cherries (no fresh ones in the shops!!), cherry yogurt (to replace buttermilk/natural yogurt in the recipe), fresh eggs and dark chocolate.

Batter whisked smooth, ready to be baked. Instead of 3 pans, I baked the cake in one big pan, in 170C for about 45 minutes.

After the cake had cooled down I cut it in two halves. The bottom half came out fine and I spread cherry jam on it. The upper half just collapsed when I was lifting it, so I had to plan the cake again... I rebuilt the upper half as well  as I could, spread some jam on it and then poured the chocolate ganache on top. 

I piped cream on the sides and some on top of the cake and then placed the canned cherries in the middle. Then I finalised the cake with some grated chocolate.

Not much was left after serving the cake to 7 people. Very moist and chocolaty but not bitter at all (some dark chocolates unfortunately are). Fresh cherries would of course have been the best but the canned ones I did not need to pit...