Eggless Black Forest Cake Trifle
The classic black forest cake is very inspirational and quite simple to reimagine. It's got easy enough elements to play around with, and takes well to add ins like a dark chocolate ganache etc. This reimagined eggless black forest cake trifle is as simple as it is delicious!Makes one 4" trifle bowl
Equipment
- 2 Round mixing bowls
- 1 Small saucepan
- 1 Cherry pitter
- 1 Electric hand blender
- 1 Oven
- 2 4" square baking molds
- 1 4" Square glass serving dish
- 1 Piping bag fitted with a large 2A nozzle
- 1 Small tea strainer / sieve
Ingredients
Eggless chocolate sponge (makes two 4" cakes)
- 105 g buttermilk
- 25 g oil
- 50 g castor sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 8 g cocoa powder
- 25 g wholewheat flour/atta
- 50 g all purpose flour
Almond cream
- 150 g cream cheese chilled
- Few drops almond extract {or vanilla extract}
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 50 g whipping cream chilled
Chocolate ganache
- 50 g cream 25% fat
- 40 g 55% couverture chocolate
Cherry pie filling
- 250 g cherries pitted
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp water
- 50 g sugar
- Juice of 1 lime
- 25 ml Kirsch {cherry brandy} or simple sugar syrup for moistening
To finish
- Fresh cherries, edible flowers, fresh mint
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
Eggless chocolate sponge
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Line the base of two 4" square baking / steel dessert tins with foil and the sides with parchment.
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and give them a good whisk with an electric hand mixer.
- Divide the batter between the tins, about 130g batter per tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the tester comes out clean. Cool completely, then trim the tops.
Almond cream
- In a small bowl, whip the cream cheese, almond extract and icing sugar until smooth. Reserve.
- In a large bowl, whip the whipping cream to firm peaks, then add in the whipped cream cheese and beat until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag with a 2A nozzle fitted.
Chocolate Ganache
- Place the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate. Cover the bowl and leave until the chocolate softens. Stir until smooth.
Cherry pie filling
- Whisk everything together in a heavy bottom pan and gently simmer for about 5 minutes until thick and glossy, the cherries still holding shape. Strain the cherries out and reserve in a bowl. Reduce the liquid until thick, then stir it back into the reserved cherries. Cool.
Assemble
- Layer 1 - Line the base of a 4" dessert bowl with a layer of cake. Moisten with Kirsch.
- Layer 2 - Pipe over a layer of almond cream.
- Layer 3 - Top the cream with the cherry pie filling {you might not need all the cherry liquid}.
- Layer 4 - Pour over a layer of ganache.
- Layer 5 - Place the second layer of chocolate sponge over the ganache and moisten it with Kirsch.
- Layer 6 - Pipe over a layer of almond cream.
- Dust the top with cocoa powder and garnish with fresh cherries, mint, edible flowers etc.