Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte — Black Forest Cake

Name: Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte — Black Forest Cake
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: German (Black Forest)
Ingredients: 6 Eggs; 180 g Caster sugar; 120 g Plain flour; 40 g Cocoa powder; 60 g Butter, melted; 600 g Sour cherries (Morello), jarred or fresh; 60 ml Kirsch (Kirschwasser, cherry brandy); 2 tbsp Cornflour; 600 ml Whipping cream (cold); 3 tbsp Icing sugar; 100 g Dark chocolate, for shavings

Layers of chocolate sponge soaked in cherry brandy, stacked with sour cherries and clouds of whipped cream, then covered in chocolate shavings. Named for the Kirschwasser that defines it, not the forest.

来源

食谱提供 Black Forest confectioners · 🏺 传统 · The cake-and-Kirsch confectionery tradition of the Black Forest region in the southwest

Black Forest · classic German cake — An ownerless traditional dish with a DISPUTED origin, so no cook is credited. The cited article records the term first appearing in print in February 1915, Josef Keller's 1975 claim to have created it in Bad Godesberg, and an alternative attribution to Erwin Hildenbrand in 1930; it lists the components — chocolate sponge, Kirsch, cherries and cherry jam, whipped cream, dark-chocolate decoration — and the EU 2013 protection requiring Black-Forest cherries. Because it contains Kirsch it is not halal; it is NOT tagged nut-free, as chocolate and many versions carry nuts. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made

DW Food

⏱ 120 分钟🍽 12 人份🔥 480 大卡🇩🇪 德国

素食

步骤

Make the sponge: whisk the yolks with half the sugar until pale, and separately whip the whites to soft peaks with the rest of the sugar. Fold the whites into the yolks, then sift in the flour and cocoa and fold gently. Fold in the melted butter last.
💡 Fold, do not stir. The air you beat into the whites is the only thing lifting this sponge — knock it out and the cake bakes dense.
Bake in a lined 24 cm tin at 180°C for about 30–35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely, then slice horizontally into three even layers.
Cook the cherries: warm the drained cherries with 150 ml of their juice and simmer, then stir in the cornflour slaked with a little water and cook until thick and glossy. Cool, then stir in half the Kirsch. Mix the rest of the Kirsch with a little cherry juice to make a soaking syrup.
Whip the cold cream with the icing sugar to firm, spreadable peaks. Do not overwhip or it turns grainy.
Assemble: brush the first sponge layer with Kirsch syrup, spread with a thin layer of cream, and spoon over half the cherries (keep a few whole ones back for the top). Add the second layer, syrup, cream and the rest of the cherries. Top with the third layer and syrup.
💡 Keep a ring of cream at the edge of each layer to dam the cherries in, so their juice does not bleed pink down the sides of the finished cake.
Coat the whole cake in the remaining cream, press chocolate shavings around the sides, and pipe cream rosettes on top, each crowned with a reserved cherry. Chill for at least 2 hours before slicing.

💡 小贴士

The Kirschwasser is what makes it a Kirschtorte — the name is about the cherry brandy, not the Black Forest scenery. For an alcohol-free cake, soak the layers in the plain cherry juice instead, but then it is a cherry-cream cake rather than the real thing.
The cake's inventor is genuinely disputed: the term first appears in print in 1915, Josef Keller claimed it in 1975 for a Bad Godesberg café, and Erwin Hildenbrand is credited by others for 1930. Since 2013 the EU requires Black-Forest-region cherries for cake labelled with the protected name.