Black Forest Cake/ Gateau

Hope u had a wonderful time. Now, I'm much excited to tell you that the plants are well dressed with their buds blossomed and passing a divine smile to amuse us. Indeed, I too feel that dynamism in me.

I baked this cake for our wonderful friends where Anish was staying in a so called "bachelors apartment" for a month before me and Rydhi arrived. They have taken good care of him. So, while baking this black forest gateau, I could hear him saying, "It must be good, it must be good, .......". By Gods grace, it came out well.

This cake is soft and spongy with the rich flavor of cherries and the lightness of whipping cream. I referred many black forest gateau recipes and concluded to this one, including my own additions. For the whipping cream frosting, please use a heavy whipping cream and check for its sweetness. If it is not sweet, it will be stabilized only after the addition of sugar and else, beat on high for 10 minutes (taken directly from the freezer). Just before frosting, make sure to beat it again till you get stiff peaks.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Genoise
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons of corn flour
A pinch of salt
Half cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup of good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
Half cup of granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of hot melted unsalted butter

For the cherry layers:
1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
15oz/ 425 grams of dark sweet cherries in heavy syrup

Whipping cream frosting:
One teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
3 cups of heavy whipping cream
3 1/2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar.

Chocolate decoration
4 oz/113 grams of semi sweet chocolate shavings

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350oF/180oC. Grease a 9 inch round cake tin and put a butter/parchment paper and grease it with butter.

Sift all the dry ingredients- flour (all purpose flour and corn flour), salt, cocoa powder and set aside.

Place the eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl. For the process of tempering, position the bowl over the top of a saucepan of simmering water and whisk the mixture constantly to avoid any lumps. Ensure that the bottom of the heatproof bowl not to touch the boiling water. 

When the mixture becomes luke warm, remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl and with your electric mixture, beat on high speed about 5 minutes until the batter falls like a ribbon.

Add vanilla extract and beat again.

Now it is time to add the sifted dry ingredients in three steps. After each addition, gently fold the batter with a spatula. While folding, take good care to avoid deflation of the batter.

Take a small portion of the batter and fold into the melted butter and mix it back to the large bowl containing the remaining batter.

Fold the batter carefully. Simultaneously make certain that the batter is evenly distributed by the cocoa and the flour.

Bake for 30 minutes (or  more) till the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While baking is on progress, do the whipping cream frosting.

Whipping cream frosting:

In a bowl , mix the sugar, whipping cream and vanilla extract and beat for 5 to 8 minutes on high till it becomes thick. Do not over beat as it tends to be yellowy and curdle.

Now cover the bowl and refrigerate the whipping cream mixture and the beater for 1 hour.

At the moment of frosting, take the chilled whipping cream and beater and beat again for 7 minutes till it becomes stable and produces stiff peaks.

Cherries:

Drain the cherries and in a sauce pan, pour the syrup. 

Add sugar into the syrup and heat it till the sugar is fully dissolved (please check the taste of the syrup for its sweetness. If the syrup is more sour, add more sugar enough to get a perfect balance of the sourness. The syrup must be adequately sweeter).

Reserve five whole cherries and two halved cherries for decoration. (You can have 9 whole cherries for decorating :-) )

Chop the rest of the cherries for placing in between the layers.

Filling and Frosting:

When the cake is completely cooled, remove it from the cake tin and with a large knife, cut the cake (Genoise) into three layers horizontally. On each layer, apply the cherry syrup uniformly. Above that with a metallic spatula, take one-third of the whipping cream and spread it evenly. 

Distribute the chopped cherries over the whipping cream evenly and repeat the same for the next two layers.

On the top of the cake, after applying a thick layer of whipping cream, place the whole cherries and halved cherries, put the chocolate shavings. On the sides, apply a light coat of the whipping cream and decorate with chocolate shavings. 

Refrigerate overnight and serve on the next day so that all the flavors will be blended and make your taste buds more enthusiastic :-)

This was a nice surprise for them and they were very generous in giving good comments for the cake :-) and I tell u.....If you try it once, your taste buds will never forget it :-)