Blackforest cake

All of us have at one time or the other been in love with this special twist of the chocolate cake. It is great for those who love chocolate and ideal for those who dont wanna go for a complete chocolate overdose.

Surprisingly enough, this delicious dessert is much easier to make than it sounds and turns out as a fantastic cake for a birthday or simply to be cut into pastries and munched on.

So, if you are new to baking and just wanna try something advanced, but not too difficult this is the best one to begin with.

What makes a black forest cake different from regular chocolate cakes (apart from the snowy white frosting) is the layer of cherries, cranberries that goes between each layers and the juice/sugar syrup coating on each layer that gives the cake its beautiful moist quality.

You can either start from scratch and bake a perfect chocolate sponge of your own or buy one over the counter and transform it into a black forest to surprise your loved ones.

So here goes the recipe with step by step instructions

Equipment to be kept ready :

• one medium sized cake tin - lined with butter and dusted with flour

• Piping bags, star tip nozzle

• Beater, spatula, knives, skewer etc

• and your Oven ofcourse

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

• 150 gm Butter - room temperature

• 150 gm sugar

• 120 gm plain flour

• 30 gm coco powder - not sweetened

• 3 medium eggs

• a pinch of salt

• 1/4th teaspoon baking powder

• 1 spoonful rum flavour (optional)

For the frosting:

• 25 gms butter

• 150-200 gm icing sugar

• 150-250 ml heavy whipped cream

For the final assembly:

• Cranberry juice

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• chocolate strands

• grated chocolate

• lots of cherries

How to go about it:

1.Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4. 

2.Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

3. Sieve together flour, coco powder, salt and baking powder

4. Slowly add flour mixture into the fluffy butter mix, not more than 2-3 tablespoons at a time

5. Add one egg and beat until completely accomodated

6. Alternately repeat steps 4 and 5 starting and ending with the dry ingredients

7. Fold in rum flavour

8.Pour mixture into prepared baking tin and spread evenly. 

9. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into middle of cake comes out clean. 

To prepare the frosting:

1. Beat butter until soft peaks form. gradually add icing sugar and beat until desired consistency is reached

2. Whip cream in a separate bowl until stiff

3. Slowly fold in the butter icing

4. You can opt for an added drop or two of Vanilla or Rum flavour to go into this

Assembling the cake

1. Chop off the risen top part of the cake so that you have a flat surface to work with

2. Cut the cake horizontally into 3-4 layers, each time with a serrated sharp knife

3. Place the most untidy layer at the bottom, use a wide brush or simply a spoon to dab the sponge with cranberry juice. This will give the blackforest cake its classic moist texture. If you are more inclined towards sweet, stir in some sugar to the juice. You can also swap the cranberry juice with the juice from the tinned cherry can or any juice of your choice or a simple sugar syrup

4. Apply a layer of frosting, top up with some chopped cherries cover up with more frosting and proceed to the next layer.

5. Once all layers are done, spread the icing with a spatula and cover all sides and top evenly

6. Let the icing sit in the refrigerator for a while if the icing is too runny

7. Spray the sides with chocolate strands. If these are unavailable, you can crush the discarded sponge, toss in a spoonful of grated chocolate of your choice and spray it on the sides

8. Grate your favourite milk chocolate on top

9. Pipe little rossettes and decorate with cherries for the perfect finish