BEST BLACK FOREST CAKE

Ingredients 

Original recipe makes 1 - 9 inch 3 layer cake

 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
 2 cups white sugar
 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
 3/4 teaspoon salt
 3 eggs
 1 cup milk
 1/2 cup vegetable oil
 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
 2 (20 ounce) cans pitted sour cherries
 1 cup white sugar
 1/4 cup cornstarch
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 3 cups heavy whipping cream
 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
 Cherries with stem for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch, round, cake pans; cover bottoms with waxed paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, 2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, milk, oil, and 1 tablespoon vanilla; beat until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 35 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Loosen edges, and remove to racks to cool completely.
4. Drain cherries, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Combine reserved juice, cherries, 1 cup sugar and cornstarch in a 2 quart saucepan. Cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cool before using.
5. Combine whipping cream and confectioner's sugar in a chilled medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. With long serrated knife, split each cake layer horizontally in half. Tear one split layer into crumbs; set aside. Reserve 1 1/2 cups Frosting for decorating cake; set aside. Gently brush loose crumbs off top and side of each cake layer with pasty brush or hands. To assemble, place one cake layer on cake plate. Spread with 1 cup frosting; top with 3/4 cup cherry topping. Top with second cake layer; repeat layers of frosting and cherry topping. Top with third cake layer. Frost side of cake. Pat reserved crumbs onto frosting on side of cake. Spoon reserved frosting into pastry bag fitted with star decorator tip. Pipe around top edges of the cake and place the cherries on top of each.

What is the origin of the name?

This cake is named for the Black Forest area in Germany and features one of it's main crops, cherries. Black Forest gâteau and Black Forest cake are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, literally "Black Forest cherry-torte", where it originated. While the recipes can vary slightly, for the most part Black Forest Cherry Torte or as it is called in Germany Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte is a sponge cake or Gateau style chocolate cake soaked with cherry schnapps   (Kirschwasser) and filled with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings, and frosted with the same.

Where is the Black Forest?

The Black Forest is an area in Southwest Germany that got it's name many centuries ago from how thick and wooded it use to be with fir and pine trees. It is also famous for its cuckoo clocks, dark chocolate, Morello cherries, and Kirsch, the double-distilled clear alcohol they produce from the cherries

The Black Forest area in Germany

You will also see the famous Bollenhut (hat shown on the left) that resembles the colors of the Black forest cherry cake. Nobody is sure that the ingredients were chosen to resemble the hat, but it is a nice coincidence. The black dress is the dark chocolate cake,  the white shirt with Balloon puffy sleeves are the light real whipped cream, the 8-11 red pompoms are the cherries, and the black undulating lace veil shielding the young women's eyes are represented by the chocolate curls. The hat is coincidentally similar in weight they say to the cake you buy in the Black Forest. The giant wool pompoms also signify marital status. red is for single and black is for married.

So the Jury is still out .....Who made the first Black Forest Cherry Torte?

There are 2 different claims as to who made the first Black forest Cherry torte.

Josef Keller 1915

This account is written by pastry chef Claus Schaeffer who owns Cafe Schaffer in Triberg , Germany, (in the Black Forest area of Germany) who's father apprenticed under Josef Keller.

Josef Keller (1887-1981) is the inventor of the Black Forest cherry cake. Keller was the pastry chef in the Café “Ahrend” (today called Agner) in Bad Godesberg. In the year 1915 he created for the first time what he called a “Schwarzwaelder Kirsch”, or “Black Forest Cherry”.

After his time in the military, Josef Keller established his own café in Radolfzell. August Schaefer learned the trade as the apprentice to Josef Keller in Radolfzell from 1924 to 1927. After many years of collaboration, Josef Keller gave August Schaefer his recipe book which contained the original recipe. His son, Claus Schaefer, the current Konditormeister of the Triberg Café Schaefer, inherited the book and the original recipe and has thus been able to carry on making Josef Keller’s original.

Now the facts are out, why not try making your own version. :)

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