Black Forest Cherry Torte – Black Forest Cake

Cake, when you hear the word, you can imagine all the mouth watering cream and toppings blended with the soft layers of the spongy cake. Black Forest Cherry Torte (torte is the German word for cake) is one of the popular German dessert. It is a chocolate layer cake with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate curls. The cake is further decorated with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings. It is a pure heaven when it melts in your mouth. This is the first cake I have ever baked in my life and I am so happy that the output was good. I made this wonderful cake for my friend Satish’s birthday. Satish is my one of my best friend and luckily we happened to stay in the same city and he stay very close to my house. This was his last birthday as a bachelor. So I wanted throw a party for him and invited some of our friends. We all had a good time and all my friends liked it. So I want to share it with you all. Here you go…

Ingredients:

For Cake Batter:

• All purpose flour – 2 1/2 cups
• Unsweetened cocoa powder – 1/2 cup
• Sugar – 2 cups
• Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
• Corn starch – 1/4 cup
• Egg – 3
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Melted butter – 4 tbsp
• Shortening – 1 cup
• Maraschino cherry – a can
• Non stick spray or baking sheet
• Any milk or dark chocolate bar – 1 (I used Hershey’s)

For icing:

• Heavy whipping cream – 1/2 quart (473 ml)
• Powdered sugar – 1/2 cup (adjust to taste)

For Sprinkling:

• Water – 250 ml
• Sugar – 1/3 cup
• Rum or Brandy- 2 to 3 tbsp (optional)

Method of Preparation:
Cake Batter:

1. Grease two baking pans with non-stick spray or use baking sheet and preheat oven to 350°F
2. In a deep bottom vessel add eggs, shortening, vanilla essence and beat them till they blend well
3. Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, corn starch, salt together in another vessel and add it to the egg mixture. Add melted butter
4. Beat the mixture nicely till all the ingredients blend well. It will become a smooth batter
5. Now pour the batter into the greased pans equally or according to how you want the cake to be. You can also make three layers using an extra pan
6. Keep it inside the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tooth pick or skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. It is always better to check the cake after 15 minutes
7. Drain the cherries and take 1/4 cup of it and cut it into pieces. Keep the remaining for decorating the cake

Icing:

1. In between, mix heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar in a deep bottom vessel
2. Beat it with an electric mixer till it forms stiff peaks

For Sprinkling:

1. In order for the cake to be juicy, we sprinkle some sugar-rum water over the cake layers
2. Take 250 ml of water in a bowl and add 1/3 cup of sugar and rum/brandy
3. If you prefer not to add rum/brandy, you can just sprinkle sugar water

Decoration:

1. Once the cake is done, remove it from the oven and slowly transfer the bottom layer into a flat plate in which you are going to present it
2. Sprinkle some sugar-rum water over the bottom layer
3. Take a knife and spread some of the whipped cream on top of the cake. If you want the cake to be creamy in the middle, apply more
4. Now place some of the cherry pieces on top of the cream. Keep the second layer of the cake on top of it
5. Sprinkle some sugar-rum water over the layer and spread 3/4 of the remaining cream all over the cake. Spread the sides carefully
6. Now take the remaining cream and put in a piping bag and decorate it however you want.
7. You can also make a cone using thick plastic paper, fill it with cream and decorate
8. Another way is you can fill in the ziplock bag with cream, seal it and cut one corner and decorate the cake
9. Now take the chocolate bar and scrape it using knife. It will look like shredded carrot
10. Sprinkle the shredded chocolate all over the side of the cake and over the frosting on the top layer of the cake, according to how you decorate the cake
11. Use the remaining cherries to decorate the cake.
12. Believe me, it’s pure heaven