Black Forest Cake

Since my mum, dad and hubby have birthdays all around the same time, I decided to make one birthday cake to celebrate all their birthdays this year instead of making them an individual cake each.

This recipe is my new and improved Black Forest Cake. This recipe will give you a very rich and decadent cake. To start with, there are 5 layers of chocolate sponge cake, 2 layers of chocolate mousse with cherries and 2 layers of cream. It was very labour intensive to put together and decorate this cake but the time spent was well worth it and my family all enjoyed eating this cake :)

Serves 8

Ingredients

Chocolate Sponge Cake

4 room temperature eggs, separated
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
½ cup cornflour
1 tablespoon plain cake flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder

Chocolate Mousse

2 egg yolks
75g caster sugar

50ml whole milk

75g top quality dark chocolate

Pinch of table salt

100ml whipping cream


Cherries

1x 670g jar morello cherries
2 tbs caster sugar
1 tbs cornflour

Kirsch Syrup

60ml (¼ cup) Kirsch

2 tbs boiling water
2 tbs caster sugar, extra

Cream

600ml cream
6 tbsp icing sugar

To Build Your Black Forest Cake

All of the above - ie. x 5 layers chocolate sponge cake, the chocolate mousse, cherries, Kirsch syrup, freshly whipped cream plus:

Shards of grated dark chocolate (this is your ‘forest’)
Chocolate sprinkles
Fresh or glazed cherries (optional)

Method

Chocolate sponge cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease and line 2 x 20cm springform tins
3. Place egg whites in a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat the eggs on high speed until soft peaks form.
4. Sift together caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a separate bowl.
5. With the mixer still going, gradually add the caster sugar mixture one tablespoon at a time into the egg whites, beating until dissolved after each addition. When all the sugar is dissolved, turn off mixer.
6. Add egg yolks and beat again until combined.
7. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients three times to aerate and combine. Sift onto the egg mixture. Use a spatula to gently fold flours into eggs. This is the critical bit, use a ‘light’ hand and don’t over mix.
8. Pour the mixture between prepared springform tins and bake for 20 minutes. The sponge is cooked when it has slightly come away from the sides and the top springs back when lightly touched.
9. Allow cakes to cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto wire racks to cool completely.
10. Use a large serrated knife to cut the cake horizontally into 2 even layers.
11. Repeat above steps again but using only half of the ingredients to make your fifth layer (you will have 1 spare slice of cake)

Chocolate Mousse:

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar for 5 minutes, or until stiff.
2. Gently warm the milk in a small pan. Remove it from the heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks. Return to a medium heat and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently then remove from the heat.
3. Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a medium sized bowl. Pour the warm milk and the eggs over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the salt and leave to cool.
4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the cooled chocolate mixture.

Cherries:

1. Drain the cherries, reserving 2/3 cup of the juice. Reserve 12- 16 cherries to decorate.
2. Place the remaining cherries and the reserved juice in a saucepan with the sugar and cornflour.
3. Stir over medium-low heat until the mixture boils and thickens.
4. Transfer to a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill.

Kirsch syrup:

Place kirsch, water and extra sugar in a jug and stir until the sugar dissolves.


Freshly whipped cream

Use an electric beater to beat cream and icing sugar in a medium bowl until firm peaks form.

To Build Your Black Forest Cake

1. Start with a layer of chocolate sponge cake
2. Splash cake with Kirsch syrup
3. Spread a thin layer of mousse onto the sponge cake
4. Add half the cherry mix
5. Place a layer of chocolate sponge cake on top of the cherries
6. Pipe a layer of cream
7. Add another layer of chocolate sponge cake
8. Spread another layer of the mousse and then add the remaining cherries
9. Another layer of chocolate cake
10. Another splash of Kirsch syrup
11. Then another layer of piped cream
12. Final layer of chocolate sponge cake
13. Spread the remaining cream over the top and side of the cake.
14. Place the remaining cream in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm fluted nozzle and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake top and around the edge of the cake base.
15. Sprinkle the chocolate shards over the middle section on the top of the cake and the chocolate sprinkles onto the side of the cake.
16. Arrange reserved cherries on top of each second cream rosette.
17. Let cake set for 3-6 hours.
18. Cut the cake into wedges to serve.