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Bonjour my friends, I’m Frankie and welcome to Club Foody!
When there's a birthday, anniversary, holiday or other special event, it's always nice to go the extra mile
to make it even more special. Most of the time, baking is what we like to do to highlight the occasion. It can be cakes,
pies, pastries, and so on. Here's an incredible cake recipe that is perfect for these occasions...
In today’s episode, I’ll show you how to make my Black Forest Cake! Mmm, what a delicious classic!
This dessert recipe is amazingly flavorful and always great to serve for a special event. With a tasty cherry filling
and a nice chocolate cake, no wonder it's always a hit! So my friends, let's get cooking!
The first step is to make the batter... So in a large bowl, we'll add flour. Now, I'm not a sifter... I hate doing that
but in some cases, like in this recipe, sifting is the way to go. While the dry ingredients will be uniformly mixed,
the cake will be lighter. Again, I only sift when it's necessary. While we're at it, let's sift the cocoa powder
and please use a good quality one. To this, we'll add baking soda, baking powder and ground sea salt.
Oh, before we go further, you can use more cocoa powder if you like but the brand I'm using is this one
and the flavor is quite intense so adjust accordingly. All right so we'll whisk the ingredients until nicely blended and set aside.
Next, in the bowl of a stand mixer, we'll combine granulated sugar, lots of butter and pure vanilla extract.
With the paddle attachment on, we'll process on medium speed until well mixed. Now, adding one egg at a time,
we'll process well between each addition before adding the next one. When this step is done, we'll slowly pour in the oil
and continue mixing until blended. By the way, let's not forget to clean the sides of the bowl
Next, we'll add half of the dry ingredients as well as half of the buttermilk. If you want to make it from scratch,
click on the top right corner of your screen. We'll set the speed on "2" and process until just combined before adding the
remaining dry ingredients and the buttermilk. We'll also add a cup of brewed black coffee at room temperature.
We'll mix everything on low speed at first then increase to "5". We'll continue until just combined - we want a light cake
so let's no over mix! - and let's not forget to stop and clean the sides of the bowl! All right, so when this step is done,
we'll transfer the batter into 3 8-inch cake pans that have been greased and floured. Now, this is a 3 layer cake
and we want each layer to be the same thickness so the best way to go is to use a scale by pouring in the same volume.
After, we'll level the batter before tapping the pan on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles.
We'll transfer them to a 350ºF/180ºC preheated oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes
or until a cake tester comes out fairly clean. We'll remove the pans from the heat and let them cool off for a good
15 minutes before unmolding them which should come out quite easy. Then we'll place the cake on a wire rack
to allow them to cool completely. Now let's go back when the cakes were baking...
While they're in the oven, we'll start making the cherry filling... This is the brand I use. I love Bing cherries and
this is a great one for this recipe... and no, they don't pay me for saying that but I wish!
So what we'll do is to drain the liquid into a measurement cup. What we need is 3/4s of a cup
but if you don't have enough, top it up with water. Now if the cherries are whole, we'll have to slice them -
I slice mine in thirds and if they're small, just in half. While some use kirsch, I use Cherry Brandy
but use whichever you prefer. So we'll pour the liqueur over the sliced cherries, stir very well to coat and let the fruit macerate
in the alcohol while starting the syrup. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, we'll pour in the liquid we collected
from the can. We'll bring the juice to a simmer and then add the cornstarch mixture.
We'll stir constantly until it thickens and it won't take that long... maybe 30 to 45 seconds.
Right away, we'll add the cherries with the liqueur and stir well. Now, we'll taste and if it needs some sweetness,
we'll add granulated sugar - I usually add 2 tablespoons - and of course, we'll combine it into the syrup, let it cook for a
minute or until it starts bubbling. Then we'll remove from the heat and let it cool off completely.
All right! Now the cakes are cooling off and so is the cherry syrup so we'll look after the chocolate...
Using a vegetable peeler, we'll shave the chocolate just like this and set aside.
The next step is making the whipped cream. I won't go into details about making the perfect one so check it out
by clicking on the top right corner of your screen. So we'll whip the heavy cream on high speed and slowly add the
powdered sugar. Now if you want to save money and make your own, you know what to do...
When it forms stiff peaks, we'll transfer the whipped cream to the fridge while we start to assemble our cake.
Here I'm using a heavy glass bowl that I've inverted and then put the removable bottom of a cake pan - the bottom of
a springform pan works great as well. This will all make sense in a second... you'll see.
So we'll place one cake on it that we leveled out using a serrated knife.
Next, we'll brush on some Cherry Brandy - let's not go crazy with it! We don't want the cake to be wet therefore
we'll apply a thin layer. Then we'll spoon on half of the cherry filling, leaving about 3/4's of an inch to an inch from the edge.
We'll also add a little bit of whipped cream and gently spread it, leaving the same distance from the edge.
Now, we'll place another cake on top pressing it down gently and repeat the same steps by brushing some Brandy,
spoon on the rest of the filling and spread some whipped cream. We'll place the third cake on top and gently press down.
Just like previously, we'll brush on some more Cherry Brandy. Next step is to spread the whipped cream everywhere
enough so it covers the entire cake but make sure to reserve some to decorate the top of the cake later.
When it's covered, we'll apply the shaved chocolate. I'm wearing latex gloves so the chocolate doesn't melt in my hand
because the glove is cooler than our body temperature. Now I'm not too sure if you can see it but I also place
a pizza pan under my upside down bowl to collect any excess chocolate so we can reapply it. So we'll keep doing this until
the sides are covered evenly, keeping some for the top of the cake which we'll sprinkle in the center.
If there's any left, we'll lightly sprinkle around the outside edge. All right,
with the remaining whipped cream, we'll form 8 rosettes. The tip my husband is using is 1M but any large star tip will do.
The reason why David is doing it is because he's much better at it than me. Now instead of putting a cherry on top of a sundae,
we're putting cherries on top of the cake in the middle of each rosette and that's it, we're done!
And my friends, this is our Black Forest Cake! What a spectacular dessert to serve
and it's even more impressive when you can make it yourself! This is a sweet treat that will definitely highlight
any special occasion or Holiday. Dark, decadent and delicious, this is a cake everyone will enjoy...
I hope you give it a try soon and be sure to visit clubfoody.com for ingredient amounts, directions and more info…
Until next time my friends, bon appétit!
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