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Dienstag, 17. April 2012

Black Forest Gateau ... with a new twist

Black Forest gateau or cake is the classic among German cakes. It consists of a chocolate-flavoured sponge filled with cherries and whipped cream. Personally, I'm not a big fan of whipped cream so I decided to use a white chocolate frosting instead. I think it gives the cake a totally new twist but it's still close enough to the original to be called a Black Forest cake... Anyways, this cake was a present for my aunt's 60th birthday and she just loved it.







Sponge (2 cake tins, 7inch):

  • 150g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate
  • 75g  (2.6 oz) butter, unsalted
  • 6 eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • 200g  (7 oz) sugar
  • 100g  (3.5 oz) flour
  • 50g (1.8 oz) cornstarch
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder

Cherry filling:

  • 150g (5.3 oz) cherries (canned)
  • 100ml (3.4 fl oz) cherry juice (just reserve some juice from the canned cherries)
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp kirsch (cherry brandy) plus about 4 tbsp to soak the sponge

White chocolate frosting:

  • 250g (8.8 oz) white chocolate
  • 350g (12.3 oz) cream chees
  • 120g (4.2 oz) butter at room temperature

Decorations:
  •  2 tbsp chocolate shavings

Method:


 1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 330°F.
For the sponge, melt the dark chocolate and the butter . Seperate the eggs and cream the egg yolks with the suger until light and fluffy. Beat the egg whites, adding a pinch of salt, until stiff peaks form.

2. Combine the chocolate mixture and the egg yolk-mixture and mix well. Gently fold in the egg whites in several batches. Mix the baking powder, cocoa powder and the cornstarch and sift into the batter in several batches, gently folding it in.

3. Prepare two baking tins of 7 inches. Fill each tin with half of the batter and bake for about 35 minutes at 170°C/ 330°F. Let the sponges cool completely.


Step-by-step instructions for the Black Forest cake



4. For the cherry filling, drain the cherries, reserving about 100ml of the juice. Mix two tablespoons of the juice with the cornstarch and the sugar. Bring the rest of the juice to the boil, then stir in the starch and remove from the heat. Add a tablespoon of kirsch and the cherries. Let cool completely.

5. For the frosting, melt the white chocolate very gently over a water bath. Cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer, slowly adding the melted white chocolate. Add the soft butter and mix well.

6. Level the tops of the sponges and soak each sponge with about 2 tablespoons of kirsch (6A). Pipe some of the frosting around one of the sponges so as to form a ring and fill with the cherries (6B) and cover them in frosting (6C). Put the second sponge, soaked side facing down, on top (6D).

7. Using a palette knife, cover the cake in a very thin crumb coat of frosting (7A). With a large open star shaped tip on your pastry bag, pipe roses onto the top of the cake (7B). (Here's a very helpful tutorial by i am baker:  http://iambaker.net/rose-cake-tutorial). Add another layer of frosting to the sides of the cake and smoothen with a palette knife. Decorate the sides of the cake with chocolate shavings.

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