Black forest Archives - Passionate About Baking

“Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection”

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Was missing from bloggerville for a while as we took the kids for a vacation to a charming town called Gangtok tucked away in the Himalayas in the North East of India. It was a 2 hour flight from New Delhi, and then a 5 hour bumpy car ride to the resort. From there, I thought I would tweet and blog a bit, but surprise surprise … we had no connectivity there! It was a surreal feeling in some ways not to be able to keep in touch with the external world. In my free time I experienced twitter cravings, FBC withdrawal symptoms etc and at times felt I had disappeared into oblivion. Thankfully there was loads to do there, so these feelings were pretty short-lived!

Time to return after a good 6 day break in the beautiful Himalayan hills, and we landed on the eve of the lad’s birthday! Didn’t know what hit me as I faced his extreme birthday excitement, piles of laundry, the feeling of extreme food disconnect, and the panic that in 6 days I might have forgotten how to cook & bake! I was mighty relieved that I had baked the basic sponge for his birthday cake and frozen it before we left. Phew!!

Crept out early the next morning, while the rest of the family luxuriously snoozed in dreamland, cursing my luck, but the cake had to be assembled, and that too in soaring temperatures! Yes indeed, we were back into summer. From a cool 15C in the hills, we landed the night before at 39C The day highs here are back to 42-44C. The impending task of frosting a cake in such smoldering conditions was not exactly appealing, but I was determined to stick to my choice of Swiss Black Forest Cake. The upside was that almost all parts of the cake can be made in advance, so assembling it is a breeze! In retrospect, it was the best Black Forest Cake we’ve ever had! Am still ruing the fact that it disappeared rather too quickly!

Rose Beranbaums version of the Black Forest Cake, a German Classic, was inspired by Confiserie Tschirren in Berne, Switzerland. They brought the recipe from Germany after World War II, and it has since become the national cake of Switzerland. In her words, the Swiss version is far lighter and more delicate than the original German one, which also includes buttercream.

My version of the cake is one which is quite popular in bakeries and patisseries all across India. I think it’s referred often as the Black Forest Gateau here, and is made with whipped cream and canned cherries. I took advantage of fresh cherry season, and loved the way the cake came together. The crumb was light and very moist, the filling luxurious and the flavours outstanding. Mr PABs verdict … the best BFC he’s ever had!

A very sweet reader of my blog, Zareena from the UAE sent me this beautiful book a short while ago. I used The Cake Bible last month to make these Cherry and Matcha Cheesecake Pots. I waited impatiently for the son’s birthday to arrive so I could bake a cake from it. On the cover it says, “If you ever bake a cake, this book will become your partner in the kitchen”! Words that ring true for me! I am also happy to blog about this because I get a large number of requests from home bakers especially in India for a BFC recipe, and even more queries for whipping up low fat cream. Our basic problem in India is that we get just one sort of cream here, a 25% low fat cream {Amul}, and in warm weather, it almost never gets whipped up. I was thrilled to read how Rose Beranbaum found a way to get the butterfat back into the cream. To quote her, “I am both abashed and delighted to announce that it is the very soul of simplicity“… music to my ears!!

Swiss Black Forest Cake
Minimally adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum
Serves 12-15
2 moist chocolate genoise cakes {recipe follows}
500gms cherries {fresh, frozen or canned}
1 cup syrup {recipe follows}
1 portion Real Old Fashioned Whipped Vanilla Cream {recipe follows}
Fresh cherries, grated dark chocolate and chocolate flakes for garnishing

Moist Chocolate Genoise
Adapted minimally from The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum
230gms dark chocolate
3/4 cup water
8 eggs
1 cup vanilla sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornflour

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare 2 9 x 2″ spring form cake tins – greased, bottoms lined with baking parchment, greased and floured again.

Sift the flours. Reserve.

In a large pan, bring the chocolate and the water to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency. {The original recipe has 1 cup of water, but I found it way too much and the chocolate took forever to thicken}. Cool completely.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed till tripled in volume, about 7-10 minutes. {I use an electric hand beater}

Sift 1/2 the flour mix over the beaten egg mixture, and fold in gently but rapidly until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all the flour has disappeared. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated.

Pour immediately into prepared pans {about 2/3 full}, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula/butter knife, and invert onto lightly greased cooling racks. Re-invert to cool. {At this point, the cake stays at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for 2 months. I froze it for 10 days, and brought it down into the fridge the night before I was due to use it}

Syrup:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp cherry brandy / liqueur / kirsch {optional}

Bring the sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat, stir in the liqueur if using, cover and allow to cool. {Can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a month}

Cherries:

500gms fresh cherries, pitted {reserve 8-10 for topping}

1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar {depending on how sweet they are}

I tossed the cherries in the sugar and froze them as suggested by Rose Beranbaum in The Cake Bible. The sugar helps them hold shape. I brought them down into the fridge the night before, drained any liquid, and roughly chopped them up for use. I think you can use freshly pitted, chopped ones too. I have used canned cherries in the past. Halve the cherries if they are too big.

Real Old Fashioned Whipped Vanilla Cream:

Adapted from Rose Beranbaums recipe

800gms low fat cream {I used 25% Amul Cream}, chilled

2/3 cup unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean scraped

3-4 tbsp powdered sugar {increase if desired; as per taste}

Refrigerate the bowl and beater for 15 minutes.

In a small pan, melt the butter and 1/2 cup cream, stirring constantly till the butter has completely melted. Add the scraped vanilla seeds, and bean, mix well. Transfer to a heatproof measuring cup to cool to room temperature. {Remove the bean before use}.

Beat the remaining cream with sugar until soft peaks are reached. Now begin adding the butter in a gradual stream, beating constantly on low speed, until stiff peaks are formed. {Because the temperature that day was about 43C, I didn’t get very firm whipped cream, but it was good enough to fill and frost the cake.}

Assembling the cake:

Split the chocolate genoise horizontally to get 4 layers. Sprinkle both sides of each layer with the syrup, and reserve on platters. Place the bottom layer on the serving platter.

Reserve about 1/2 the cream for the topping and frosting. Take a third of the remaining cream and spread over the bottom later. Distribute 1/3 of the cherries over the cream, poking into the cream. Repeat with the remaining 3 layers.

Put about 1/2 a cup of cream in a piping bag to make rosettes on top if desired. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Cover the sides with grated dark chocolate. Pipe rosettes on top, sprinkle chocolate flakes in the centre, and place cherries on the rosettes. Chill until ready to serve. {I found the cake easier to cut with a serrated knife because of the cherries in the filling}

Note: The cake will taste better if allowed to chill for at least 4 hours to help the flavours to mature.

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Tag: Black forest

Swiss Black Forest Cake … whipping up low fat cream into submission!

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