This black forest cake is a twist on a classic dinner party dessert. Scroll down for the recipe.
Traditional cake flavours
Retro puddings have been making a bit of a come back. whether it's Vienetta or jelly and ice cream, I've spotted a trend for the desserts of our childhood appearing on restaurant menus. When I think of parties in the 90s (that's right I was a 90s child!) I automatically think of fruit and cream cakes that came out of the freezer isle at the supermarket. And my favourite of them all had to be the Black Forest Gateaux!
I'm all about nostalgic food right now so I thought I'd take this classic dessert and give it an upgrade. I like to think the styling is a bit more modern and there isn't a glacé or maraschino cherry in sight! In all honesty, I got a bit carried away slathering cream over layers of chocolate sponge and adding a tonne of cherry compote.
To stay true to the Black Forest Gateaux I've kept the traditional kirsch spiked dark chocolate sponge layers and they are sandwiched together with a sweetened, whipped cream.
The main difference is the black cherry compote that I've used to fill the two sponge layers and as a sticky sweet topping to finish off the cake. If you wanted to give it more of a retro vibe then you could cover the whole thing in the cream and cover with dark chocolate shavings, but I'll leave how you decorate the cake up to you.
The recipe
There are a fair few processes in this recipe but I promise it is worth it.
The cherries are sweet and sticky, the cream rich and smooth, the chocolate cake the right amount of bitterness to balance it all out.
What more could you want in a cake?!
Black Forest Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 175 g Self raising flour
- 4 tablespoon Cocoa powder
- 150 g Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 150 ml Oil
- 1 tablespoon kirsch
- 150 ml Milk
- 2 tablespoon Golden syrup
For the cream
- 300 ml whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon marscapone
- 1 vanilla pod seeds only
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
For the cherry compote
- 350 grams cherries pitted
- 80 ml water
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 0.5 lemon zest only
Instructions
- First pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4.
- Sieve the flour, cocoa and sugar into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
- Lightly whisk the eggs before pouring into the well along with the kirsch, milk, oil and golden syrup. Using an electric whisk beat until smooth and frothy!
- Pour the mixture into two well greased cake tins and cook for 25mins or until they spring back when touched.
- While the cakes are cooking, place the cherries, sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Once it has reached a boil, let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until the mixture gets thick.
- Add the cornstarch and zest.
- Stir for a further 5 minutes and set to one side to cool.
- By now the cakes should be ready to come out of the oven, allow the cakes to cool completely before decorating.
- Once the cakes and cherry compote are completely cool, whisk together the cream, marscapone, icing sugar and vanilla until thick.
- The cream is sufficiently whipped when it is smooth, glossy and just holds its shape.
- Assemble the cake by spreading half of the cream over the bottom sponge layer.
- Top with half of the cherries before stacking the second sponge, cream and the remaining cherry compote.
Notes
Nutrition
More chocolate cakes
More cake recipes
For EVEN MORE cake recipes, check out the cake recipe archive.
Lucy @ Bakingqueen74 says
mmm, this looks so good! Have some cherries in the back of a cupboard, now have plans for them!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Lucy 😀 if you do make it I'd love to see photos!!! X
Kiran says
Yum!!! It looks amazing xx
Emma Walton says
Thank Kiran 😀
Camilla says
Congratulations on your new site - I hope you enjoy WordPress:-) That Black Forest Cake looks to die for and is one of mine and my husbands favourites:-)
Emma Walton says
Thanks Camilla! I didn't realise quite how popular the cherry and chocolate combo was! Sounds like you should bake this at the weekend 😉
Laura says
Firstly - congrats on the new site 🙂 I can imagine it took a lot of hard work to sort all the coding out yourself! I haven't looked back since starting to work on a self-hosted wordpress site so hopefully you will get on well with it!
The Black Forest Cake looks beautiful - my partners favourite but something I have never made. I really must give it a go!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Laura! Im already seeing the benefits and its only been live a few days :-p Im sure he'd love this cake - why not make it for his birthday?! 😀
Danielle Did What says
oh wow that looks amazing!!! making me dribble lol xx
Emma Walton says
Hahah uh oh don't dribble all over your laptop :-p thanks for your kind words! Xx
Nayna Kanabar says
This is my absolute favorite cake and I am seriously drooling over your picture.
Emma Walton says
Awww thanks Nayna you are too kind! I didn't realise everyone loved the cherry and chocolate as much as I. I will have to cook it more often 😀
Maggie says
I adore Black Forest Cake and yours looks stunning. Once I used griottine cherries in kirch and they are lovely to use too.
Emma Walton says
Good idea Maggie! I'm a sucker for all types of cherries 🙂
Sarah Maison Cupcake says
I'm old enough to just about remember when Black Forest Gateau was ubiquitous, you couldn't go anywhere without it being on the dessert menu and yet now we rarely see it. Thanks for the reminder!
Emma Walton says
Hahaha my pleasure Sarah! I do love a bit of retro 😉
Elizabeth says
This cake looks absolutely amazing! Congratulations on the blog move too!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Elizabeth 😀 you just want to reach in and take a slice don't you? :-p
Jo of Jo's Kitchen says
I love black forest cake and this looks amazing!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Jo 😀 x
Choclette says
Oh very well done you. I'm mighty impressed you've learn CSS and coded this all up yourself. It's looking great. Despite my many years of chocolate baking, I've not once made a Black Forest Gateau - if I ever do get around to it, I hope it looks as good as this one.
Emma Walton says
That does surprise me Choclette! If you do give it a go I'd love to see pictures! !! I have YouTube to thank for a lot of this haha
Jenny Eaves says
This looks delicious! I love black forest gateau, putting this on my cake to do list. 🙂 x
Emma Walton says
Awesome Jenny! I hope you like it. I'd love to see pictures when you make it 🙂
Roxanne says
Firstly, congratulations! The blog looks great!! 🙂
Also, this cake is layered perfection - black forest is my man's favourite!
thelemonandjar.com
Emma Walton says
Thanks Roxanne! You're too kind 🙂 you should definitley make this for him. His birthday? Or maybe just because! If you do I'd love to see photos. 😀
simon says
Congratulations with your New blog! What a great way to celebrate 🙂 pitty we can't join this looks amazing.
Thx for sharing!
Debi at Life Currents says
Oh my this looks awesome! I'll take 2 slices, please!
Emma Walton says
Haha thanks Debi! You can have 3 if you like 😉
April says
Oh yum. This looks so good! I know I'm late but congrats on your new self hosted blog. It looks great! 🙂
Emma Walton says
Thanks April 🙂 the new design is still a bit of a work on progress even now but it's much better than it was! Glad you like the cake
Jenn says
Sounds so decadent and amazing! Would be perfect for Valentine's Day!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Jenn! You're right it would be perfect for Valentines day!
Jillian @ Food, Folks and Fun says
Your black forest cake looks divine!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Jillian 🙂
Kaitie @ Fuchsia Freezer says
Your pictures are gorgeous! But this cake! MAN that sounds delicious!!
Emma Walton says
Thanks Katie! I'm glad you like it. Chocolate and cherries is one of my favourite combos so I make this cake alot :-p
Playful Cooking says
The cake looks just perfect! Can I use all purpose instead?
Emma Walton says
Hey there! If you use all purpose flour you'll need to use about a TSP of baking powder to make sure you get a rise 🙂 add it in with the flour and make sure you get it in the oven quickly. The bubbles it creates will begin forming when the baking powder hits the wet ingredients.