A Black forest German Gateau
Cake ‘Schwarzwälder Kirsch
torte’with Cherries from Kashmir, Baked in
Bengal
This
was his last bite. My Father, he tasted the little portion of the black forest
cake that I cut for him n served him on a tea saucer. Back at that moment I had
no idea that this was going to be the last thing he will eat, made by me. So
for me this is his last bite of any food cooked by me and it is special in that
way but it will always have sadness n gloom attached with this memory. Now that
my Father has left his body, I run the pictures in my mind of the moment when
he looked at the piece of cake in the little saucer, cut into it n very carefully,
with a little shaky hand he transferred into his mouth, so that it doesn't fall
off the spoon. I was looking for any signs of expression on his face and I find
a little sign of satisfaction as he went through the cake. I am just re-running
that subtle expression of Dad in my mind.
I
wanted to do this black forest gateau cake for a long time, sometimes the doubt
of eating so much whipped cream halted me, sometimes the doubt of whipping up
huge volume of cream by hand made me pause, and sometimes I didn't get the
cherries. But then with love that stayed on n upon consistent demand from my
cute nephew, I did whip up large volume of cream by hand, whip up eggs with
sugar till I reached the ribbon stage, pitted the cherries all by hand n I bake
the cake!
The
black forest cake or gateau has its origin in Germany, though the name doesn't come from the Black Forest mountain range in south-western Germany, rather it
comes from a special liquor of that region called ‘Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser)’ n it is
distilled from tart cherries. The liquor has a distinctive cherry pit flavor
and alcoholic in nature that gives the cake its distinctive smell n flavor. So
‘Kirsch’ is what makes it special although other liquors are also used such as
rum, which is used in Austria and co-incidentally which I also used, red rum.
Making the chocolate sponge for this cake requires a bit of whipping,
first eggs n sugar r heated in a water bath until warm while constantly
whisking, when the temperature is achieved the mixture is removed from heat and
then further whisked until the mixture fluffs up and becomes almost triple in
volume. When the whisk is lifted we can see ribbons falling off from the whisk
and a figure of 8 made the ribbon stays for a second to be visible. No baking
powder is used for this cake and the light volume is achieved by incorporating
air in the egg n sugar mixture.
The touch of Kirsch or rum gives the cake it’s special touch, but then
you can always skip it if you want to, in my case my nephew kept away all the
cherries from his piece! He likes the black forest cake without the cherries!
I have to tell you this, if you want to eat this cake tomorrow you have
to begin today, the cake needs rest for several hours after baking, preferably
overnight, also the cherries in soup which is treated with cornflour, need
overnight time in the freeze to set, so keep that in mind.
So I guess it is now time to tell you about the recipe, here we go to
have a walk in the Black forest cake.
For The
Recipe: You will need
For the
Chocolate Sponge:
Eggs-6
Powdered Sugar- 200gm (I used 180gm)
Coco powdered- 45gm
Plain Flour- 90gm
Butter, melted n kept warm-60gm
Salt-1/4 tsp, skip if butter is salted
For the Cherry layer:
Cherries-350gm,
pitted and separated from the syrup
Syrup in which the cherries
were preserved-1 cup
Lime Zest-1/2 tsp,
roasted, dried out then whizzed with sugar
Cinnamon- ½-1/4 tsp,
roasted slightly n powdered
Cornflour-1-1 ½ tbsp
Sugar-1 tbsp+1 tbsp
(optional)
For the Whipping Cream:
Whipping
cream/double cream-500ml
Fine powdered
sugar-4 tbsp
Vanilla essence- 1
tbsp
For the Rum syrup:
Red rum- 3 tbsp
Suagr-2 tbsp
Syrup from the
cherries-4 tbsp
For the Chocolate Layer n Chocolate
shavings:
Dark chocolate-50-80
gm
Save a few whole cherries for decorating the cake.
1. We will begin by
making the cake which will need to rest overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 180
degrees Celsius n butter one 8 inch cake tin. So begin by cracking the eggs in
a big airy bowl n add the powdered sugar on them. Prepare a water bath or
bain-marie, as the water comes to simmer, place the bowl with egg n sugar on
top of it making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.
Whisk continuously as the mixture warms up, test it by placing a little of the
mixture with your finger on your inner wrist, it will take 3-5 minutes to get
warm, on your wrist it should feel comfortably warm, not something that is
beginning to get intolerable for skin. So when the mixture feels warm enough
remove it from the water bath and now either with hand whisk or electric whisk
or stand whisk, whisk it until the mixture fluffs up becoming almost triple in
volume. If you are whisking by hand it will take about 20 minutes, otherwise it
will take about 5-8 minutes, when you will lift the whisk it will fall off
smoothly making ribbons on the surface, if you try to do a figure of 8 you will
be able to see the figure 8 for a moment before it vanishes, when you can do
that you are at the right consistency.
2. Now sift the coco
powder n flour alternatively in 3 stages and gently fold in with a spatula, first
sift one-third coco powder, then one-third plain flour in 3 stages, until the
flour n coco powder has been incorporated. For folding rotate the bowl while
you lift up the mixture gently with the spatula and fold in slowly, keep
rotating the bowl as you do so. After that add the warm melted butter and
gently fold in again. Then carefully place the batter gently into the buttered cake
tin which is layered at the bottom with perchment paper, then smooth the
surface with a spoon or scraper. Then give one tap on the table before you
place the cake tin in the oven, bake for about 20 -25 minutes, when a toothpick
inserted comes out clean and you will see the cake will start to shrink from
the sides. Then take the cake out of the oven, rest 10 minutes, take it out of
the cake tin and place on a wired rack to cool overnight.
3. Now well prepare
for the cherry syrup. Take a lime, with a sharp knife cut the peel lightly so
that you don’t get the white part under the peel, when you have taken off the zest
of the whole lime like that, put them in a baking tray and in a very low oven
of around 100 degrees Celsius roast them but keep the oven door slightly open,
give them about 5-10 minutes, shake the tray in between until they get brown
but not burnt. When this is achieved take them out and cool them and they will
crisp up, after that in a mortar n pestle powder them with 1 tbsp of sugar,
keep aside.
4. Take 1 inch
cinnamon stick and roast it slightly in a frying pan, tossing the pan often for
about 1 minute, then crush it to a powder in a mortar n pestle, keep aside.
5. Take 4 tbsp of
the cherry syrup and mix the corn flour, lime zest powder, cinnamon powder, 1
tsp of sugar until it is smooth. Then put the cherries with 1 cup of syrup in a
pan and let it come to a boil, then add this mixture stirring constantly, very
soon the cherry syrup will begin to thicken, taste it, add a little sugar if
you think it needs a bit, then take it off the heat, pour it in a bowl, let it
come to room temperature, when it is there, cover it with plastic wrap and put
in the refrigerator overnight and it will settle and almost become like cherry
jam.
6. So next day we
are ready to put it all together. Mount the cake on a high platform, make it by
placing a plate on a deep high bowl, you can rotate it also, now with a
serrated long knife cut around the edges of the cake to get 3 layers of the
cake. Turn the cake slowly as you cut through the cake. Obtain 3 layers.
7. Melt 40 gm of
dark chocolate in a water bath and pour that chocolate over the 1st
layer of the cake, make that surface almost coated with the liquid chocolate,
after that place that cake layer in freeze until the chocolate solidifies.
8. Now we will whip
the cream, freeze the whisk, the bowl for whipping for around 30 minutes. The
cream should be very cold, around 0 degrees Celsius, then with an electric
beater whisk it, when the cream starts to thicken add the vanilla essence,
powdered sugar bit by bit and beat it until it just begins to hold the peak
when tested with the whisk. Don’t over beat or your cream will be grainy and if
using dairy cream it will turn into butter. Just when the cream begins to hold
the peak, stop right there.
9. Dissolve the
sugar in the water n red rum mixture. Get the cake layer with chocolate and the
cherry mixture out of the freeze, with a spoon spread the cherry mixture on top
of the chocolate layer which is now solid, cover that surface completely with
the cherries. Now take whipped cream and spread it over the cherries until you
cover them completely with cream. Place this layer on a round piece of
cardboard so the cake will have a solid base and it will easy to move the cake
further.
10. Now take 2nd
layer of cake and sprinkle the rum syrup with a spoon or brush over both the
sides of the layer. Then carefully place that layer on top of the cherry layer,
then on top of this layer spread a layer of whipped cream. Then you place the 3rd
layer on top of this cream and again brush the rest of the rum syrup all over
the surface. Then cover this surface with whipped cream. Now we have to cover
the whole cake with cream, so cover the sides carefully with cream. When it is
done, put the rest of the whipped cream in a piping bag and pipe on top of the
cake the way you like it, I made small spiral rounds around the edges.
11. Now we will make
chocolate shavings, get a bar of chocolate, take sharp knife, hold the blade of
the knife between you two hands so it is parallel to your body, then resting
your hands on the chocolate bar, putting some weight on the bar so it doesn't
slip, drag the knife towards you and the chocolate shavings will appear. Be
careful when you do this, do it slowly, get around 1 cup of shavings.
12. Take a handful
of chocolate shavings and press it lightly around the base of the cake. Go
around the cake until the cake is covered with the shavings around the base.
Now place whole cherries on top of each cream round you have made on the top,
then fill the middle portion of the top of the cake with a handful of shavings.
Now see how beautiful it looks! Isn’t it just so amazing? You just did that!
And now we are ready to cut into the black forest gateau cake! Look at
the cake for some time and absorb the beauty; let the cake settle a bit also, and
then approach with love and with a knife. Bon appétit.
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