Black Forest Gateau

I loooove Black Forest. We used to have these available at the snack kiosk at college. My friend, Divya and I used to be the greatest addicts of black forest, in our gang. We tried controlling ourselves from not having it but no luck. Finally they stopped getting it which did help us to cut down our consumption of this cake. This cake had been on my to-bake list for so long. But I was just waiting for a reason to make it. And so our second wedding anniversary arrives giving me a reason to try it and stop procrastinating it.

I had been in a hunt to figure out the perfect recipe, stores to get fresh cherries etc. for some time now, which luckily got unnoticed by my husband and hence helped me keep it a secret. I shopped the ingredients and baked the cake while he was away for work. When he got back, I tried hard to keep my enthusiasm low which in fact failed. I won't blame myself. Who wouldn't get super excited about their first so called decoration cake.





I presented the cake to him just to see his jaws dropping as he wasn't expecting it. Though the look was tempting we couldn't cut it then, as it was already late in the evening. We had to wait for the photo shoot to happen before we taste it. That might have in fact left him with a ray of hope that he was spared one more night from tasting another experiment of mine :P. And ofcourse the anniversary was still 1 day later,which we kind of fixed it by assuming that we already turned 2 as per India time zone.

Well, let me cut short and get down to the main part i.e. recipes, because its gonna be a long one, but totally worth it to go through.

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Genoise

1. 3 tbsp of hot melted salted butter
2. 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
3. 1/3 cup of  dark cocoa powder
4. 4 large eggs
5. 2/3 cup of granulated white sugar
6. 1 tsp of vanilla extract

For the Cherry filling

1. 2 cups of fresh pitted cherries
2. 2 tbsp of granulated white sugar
3. 1 tbsp of rum
4. 1 tsp of vanilla
5. 1 cup of sugar
6. 1 cup of water

For the Whipped cream frosting

1. 2 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
2. 3 tbsp of granulated white sugar
3. 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Method

Making of Chocolate Genoise

• Sift the all purpose flour and cocoa powder to make it lump free and keep it aside.
• In a heat proof bowl, whisk the egg and sugar. Place it on top of a saucepan of simmering water and keep whisking it continuously. Once the mixture is lukewarm, remove it from the heat.
• Beat the egg mixture untill it gets thickened like a custard. 
• Add in the vanilla extract and beat it for 1 min.
• Add the sifted flour mixture little by little and fold in with a spatula, just enough that all the ingredients get incorporated well.
• Scoop out a tbsp of the batter and mix it with the melted butter. Then add it back to the batter and give it a mix.
• Pour it into a greased baking pan.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 180 C. Bake the cake for about 20-25 minutes or untill a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once cool, use a sharp knife to cut the cake horizontally into as many layers as you want in the black forest and keep it aside.

Making of the Cherry filling

• Mix the cut cherry, 2 tbsp of sugar, vanilla extract and rum. Leave it in the refrigerator overnight. 
• In a saucepan, add the remaining sugar and water to the cherry mixture and bring it to a boil. Switch off the heat.
• Let it cool down before you use it to assemble the cake.

Making of the whipped cream

• In a bowl, add the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract and cover it.
• Place the bowl and the whisk in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
• Beat the mixture till it starts forming stiff peaks.

Assembly of the cake

• Place a layer of cake on the serving plate. 
• Brush the cake surface with the cherry syrup.
• Spread a layer of whipped cream on top of it.
• Spread few cherry from the cherry filling on top of it.
• Repeat the same process untill you are done with all the layers.
• Spread the remaining whipped cream on top and the sides of the cake.
• Decorate the cake with shaved chocolate and cherries.
• Refrigerate the cake overnight and serve it chill.

Tips

1. While you fold in the cake flour to the beaten egg mixture, do not over mix. This would help to give you a light and airy cake.
2. Use a electric/hand mixer to beat the egg mixture for the genoise/ for making the whipped cream to get it done in 10-15 min. Hand whisk would also do, only if you have the energy and patience to beat it hard for quite some time :).
3. Cut out the top of genoise just enough to level it. I feel I would have cut it down a little more to have got a better shape :).
4. Use the top most layer of the genoise as the bottom most layer while assembling the black forest cake. I must admit that I was so thrilled making it that I missed doing so. But its recommended that you do it.
5. Do not touch the chocolate while you are shaving it for decorating the cake. Else it would melt. Use a kitchen towel to hold it, having kept vertical on to the kitchen top. With a sharp knife shave the chocolate on to a paper towel. Use a spoon to spread it on top of the cake.

Do not get disappointed by the length of the recipe. Its not that tough as it looks. Its worth a try and I am sure you would love it.

Recipe Courtesy : Chocolate Genoise & whipped cream - Joy of Baking
                                  Cherry Filling - Ria's Collection