Lesson 8: Gateau Forêt noire ( Black Forest Cake)

I know it’s three days of lessons, but I’m going to skip lessons 5, 6, & 7 for now. At some point, once I have my notes in order, I’ll blog about how to turn brioches, croissants, and puff pastry dough into buttery delights like fruit cake, croissants and pithiviers. So here we are with lesson 8—black forest cake.

A black forest cakes has three layers, and it’s made of chocolate genoise soaked with each layer flavoured with kirsch syrup, and piled with chantilly cream and cherries. The cake is decorated with chantilly cream, sweet cherries and chocolate bits and shavings.

Genoise

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

150 g sugar

120 g flour, sifted

30 g cocoa powder, sifted

25 g melted

Directions

1. Sift cocoa and flour. Set aside.
2. Combine the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Immediately set the bowl over a hot water bath or bain-marie and whisk until the mixture doubles in volume and the water reaches boiling point.
3. Remove the bowl from the heat, and whisk the eggs until they are very light yellow and thick to ribbon stage. This may take 8 to 10 minutes. You can use a mixer using a whisk attachment.
4. Fold in the sifted flour and cocoa in three or four stages, being careful not to deflate the foam. Fold gently until all the flour is blended.
5. If the butter is warm, add a bit of the folded mixture into the butter, stir, and then add the butter to the folded mixture. Carefully fold in the melted butter. Fold in the butter completely, but be careful not to over mix or the cake will be tough. If you forget to add butter, which I did in my practical, your genoise will be dry. The remedy is to add more syrup between the layers.
6. Immediately pan with scraper in a 9 inch round pan and bake on the rack at 365F for about 25 minutes.

Kirsch Syrup

200 g sugar

200 ml water

30 g Kirsch

Directions

1. Place sugar in water in a saucepan and boil until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Add the Kirsch.
4. Set aside.

Chantilly Cream

600 ml 35% cream

60 g icing sugar, sifted

2 g vanilla

Directions

1. Make sure that the cream and all equipment and utensils are chilled.
2. Whip the cream by hand or machine until forms soft peaks.
3. Add the sugar and vanilla. Continue to whip until the cream forms stiff peaks but is still smooth.  Do not overwhip the cream it will become grainy and then separate to form particles of butter.

You will also need chocolate bits and shavings and sweet dark pitted griottine cherries for this recipe.

Assembly

1. Carefully slice the cooled-off genoise into three even layers with a bread knife. Place the two first slices on parchment paper, set aside.
2. With the bottom layer of genoise, moisten the layer and sides with plenty of syrup.
3. With a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (10mm) or plain tube, pipe a circle of chantilly cream in centre of the layer. Working inward to the edge. You should have a ring of cream.
4. Using a spoon, place well-drained cherries between the rings. I added about 25 cherries for each layer.
5. Pipe three diagonal lines across the ring to hold the second layer in place.
6. Top with the second layer of genoise. Moisten layers and sides with a lot of syrup.
7. Pipe ring, spread cherries, and pipe diagonal lines.
8. Top with third layer with smooth top up. Score. Moisten with the rest of the syrup.—use it all It’s important you moisten here or it will be dry because this toughest part of the genoise.
9. Lightly mask the sides of the cake, refrigerate the cake for a good 10 minutes. Note: the chantilly cream should always be cold and whisk before piping.
10. Mask the sides of the cake, then the top.
11. With a star tip (E6) pipe eight rosettes with chantilly cream around the tops edge of the cake so that there is one each wedge.
12. Mask the sides of the cake with chocolate shavings.
13. Place a drained cherry on each rosette

This filled domed cake should be spongy, moist and easy to slice, and there should be no shortage of whipped cream and cherries. Enjoy every bite! It’s better the next day.

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