Black Forest Cake

You know what happens when you rush just to finish it so that you can have a bite of this wonderfully delicious moist cake....not finishing the piping of the whipped cream nicely.

This is another favorite of me and my mother's.  Whenever its our birthday, she would order this specially for us.  I love this since it uses fresh whipped cream which is not overly sweetened unlike the usual buttercream frosting.  Also in between the layer you will find black cherries halved and moistened with kirch.  This is truly a delicate cake which can be enjoyed with a glass of chambord. At least that is what I did..:)

Ingredients

33gm cocoa powder
59gm boiling water
37.5gm all purpose flour
37.5gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sodium bicarbonate
150gm sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks
54gm corn oil
½ tsp vanilla extract.
2 large egg whites

Method

• In your mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder and boiling water to a smooth paste and set it aside, let it cool down.
• Preheat your oven at  350 degrees. Line and grease 2  6inch round pan or 1  8inch square pan.
• Combine all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, sodium bicarb, sugar and salt. Whisk it.
• When the cocoa paste has cooled down, put in yolks and oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. 
• Put in vanilla and beat for a few seconds.
• Put in half the dry ingredients (3) and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Put in the balance and beat on high speed for 1 minute.
• Put in egg whites and whisk on high speed for 2 minutes.
• Pour batter into lined pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean
• Leave cake to cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan to cool down completely on cooling rack. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, or just freeze it for 10 mins before frosting.

Frosting

400gm dairy whipping cream

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp gelatin

1 Tbsp water

Method

• Freeze bowl for at least 15 minutes before use. If using stainless steel bowl, prepare and ice bath for use later.
• Place water in a heat proof bowl and sprinkle gelatin onto water. Let it sit for 1 minute and melt it in the microwave(high for 30 secs) or over a hot pan of water. Let it cool down.
• Remove frozen bowl from freezer (place in ice bath if stainless steel bowl) and pour in cold whipping cream. 
• Beat on low speed until it starts to thicken then increase to high. When cream has reached soft peaks, put in sugar and beat until almost stiff. Pour in melted gelatin and beat until stiff.
• Use immediately to frost.