Black Forest Cake
Indulge in Nostalgia: my delicious and decadent Black Forest Cake with a Vintage Twist – A Classic Dessert Reimagined for Modern Tastes!
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 360 g plain flour
- 40 g best quality cocoa powder (dutch processed)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 450 g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 330 g sour cream, at room temperature
- 100 g butter, melted
- 200 ml boiling water
- 250 g maraschino cherries, drained (reserve the syrup)
For the Mascarpone Cream:
- 750 g mascarpone cheese
- 100-120 g icing sugar (adjust according to how sweet you like your frosting)
- 750 ml heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla paste
For Assembly:
- Fresh cherries with stalks
- Cherry jam or gently blitz in hand blender maraschino cherries and syrup into chunky pulp.
- claret/burgundy food gel colour
Instructions
Preparing the Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Grease and line three 18 cm (7 inch) cake pans with parchment paper. You could use 6 inch cake tins but you will have to cook the cake a little longer. Check around 30-35 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine.
3. Add the sugar, eggs, sour cream, melted butter, and boiling water. Stir gently until the batter is uniform and smooth.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the three prepared cake pans (approx 400g)
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10 minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack. Allow the cakes to cool completely before leveling any domed tops and assembling.
Preparing the Maraschino Cherries:
1. Drain the maraschino cherries, reserving the syrup in a separate bowl.
2. Use the reserved syrup to brush over the cooling cakes.
Preparing the Mascarpone Cream:
1. Beat the mascarpone and icing sugar until creamy.
2. Add the cream and whip until thickened and spreadable, being careful not to over-whip and split the mixture.
Assembling the Cake:
1. Place the first cake layer on a serving platter or cake stand. Brush the reserved syrup on top of the cake. Spread a thick layer of mascarpone cream frosting on top. Place maraschino cherries over the frosting and gently press to indent.
2. Place the second cake layer over the first and repeat the layering process.
3. Top with the third cake layer. Crumb coat and chill for 1 hour at least.
4. Take some of the mascarpone cream and colour with pink gel colour for the body. Leave some cream for the vintage piping. Now cover the chilled crumb coated cake with the pink. Chill again for 30minutes.
5. Top the middle with cherry jam or the maraschino pulp and encase with the lattice pattern with basketweave weave tip 47. Using the remaining mascarpone cream to contrast. Pipe border ontop with 1M or 4B tip. You could use a smaller star tip 22/32 for the base border or use the same star piping tip if you can’t be bother with changing tips. Please see instagram reel below on how to pipe the decorative vintage style piping.
6. Decorate with fresh cherries on top.
7. Before serving, refrigerate for 30 minutes to make cutting easier.
Enjoy your homemade Black Forest Cake!