Recipe#11356

Title: Blackforest Cake 09

Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking 
 From: sophie@cs.uchicago.edu (Sophie Laplante) 
 Message-ID: E5EvKD.5EB@midway.uchicago.edu 
 Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 23:50:37 GMT 

It seems to be a tradition now that every time I make a cake for a 
 special occasion, I post about it here, so who am I to break with 
 tradition?  This time I made a cake for my birthday.
 It had to involve chocolate, and I thought about making something 
 with hazelnuts since I love those two ingredients together.  But I 
 remembered about the sour cherries in my freezer from last summer.  
 There simply was no avoiding it: I had to make a black forest cake.
 I finally bought some decent cake pans.  I'd been making do with 2 
 terrible pans that were all dented and too small and I just got fed 
 up and bought 2 hefty 9-inch pans.   My birthday present to myself.
 So imagine if you will...  a round chocolate genoise, split to make
 3 layers...  An imbibing syrup with cherry brandy...  obscene
 amounts of whipped cream...  Michigan sour cherries which I pitted
 and froze last summer for an occasion such as this...  Chocolate 
 shavings from a big chunk of good French dark chocolate...
 I finally figured out how to make those chocolate shavings so they
 don't splinter.  I take a large block of chocolate, warm it in my 
 hands until the one side is slightly softened.  Take a paring/utility
 knife and place the blade at a ~20 degree angle.  Cut down towards 
 the cutting board - cutting toward me, as I used to do, just doesn't 
 work as well.  By the time the soft layer is all gone, the part of 
 the block you are holding on to is the right texture.
 I had some friends over to share the cake; there were 6 of us and
 I had portioned out the cake into 16 pieces by piping whipped cream
 rosettes around the edge.  I was amazed how they each were able to
 eat 1/8 of the cake!  I'm no dessert wimp, but 1/16th was more than
 plenty for me.  Man, was it rich!  And great for breakfast the
 next day.  :-D
 I made the cake and the filling Friday evening, and I was in the 
 kitchen for no more than 2 hours, including figuring out the recipe,
 doing dishes, baking time, etc.  The next morning I spent about 
 30-45 minutes putting it all together.  Time well invested, if you
 ask me.
 BLACK FOREST CAKE
 =================
 Equipment
    Stand mixer (unless you or someone you have leverage over 
                 have a very strong arm and need a workout)
    1 9-inch round cake pan
    Pastry bag with a large star tip
 Cake ingredients
    4 eggs
    1/2 c sugar 
    1/2 c cake/pastry flour 
    1/3 c Dutch process cocoa
    6 T. unsalted butter, melted, solids removed (leaving 1/4 c.
         melted butter)
 Syrup ingredients
    1/4 c. water 
    1/4 c sugar
    1/4 c cherry brandy/liqueur/kirsch
 Filling ingredients
    1.5 pounds frozen sour cherries (or 2 24?-oz jars sour cherries, 
        the ones I find are usually from Poland or Hungary)
    2 T corn starch
    1/4 c sugar if using frozen/fresh cherries
    
 Cream ingredients:
    3 cups whipping cream (~35% butterfat)
    1/4 c. powdered/confectioner's sugar
    1 envelope gelatin
    1/4 c cold water
 Procedure:  Make the cakes, and cool completely.  Cut and set the 
 pieces in the refrigerator while preparing the cherry filling.  
 Cool the filling completely.  Prepare the syrup, and whip the cream 
 right before assembling.  Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
 For the cake:
 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Sift the flour and cocoa.
 Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.
 Place eggs and sugar into the bowl of the stand mixer.  Place
 over hot but not boiling water and beat for 5 minutes until
 warm to the touch and slightly thickened.  Transfer to the
 mixer and beat on moderately high speed for 8-10 minutes, until
 the mixture is cool, has tripled in volume, and is very thick.
 Gently fold the flour into the eggs, trying not to deflate the
 mixture too much.  Drop a dollop of batter into the butter, and
 fold gently, then put the buttery dollop back into the batter and
 fold to incorporate.  (That's got a nice ring to it.)  Pour into 
 the baking pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until a cake tester comes 
 out clean the the cake starts to pull away from the sides.  
 Place on a cooling rack to cool.
 For the filling:
 I used my own frozen sour cherries, so I placed them in a pan 
 with about 1/4 c sugar, over low heat.  When they were thawed and 
 had exuded some juice, I strained them and mixed the corn starch 
 into the liquid.  Brought it to a boil, cooked it briefly until 
 all the starch was cooked, and mixed the fruit back in.  Place 
 in the refrigerator to cool completely.  The result shouldn't be 
 too runny; thicken it with more corn starch if it looks like it
 will ooze out.  I probably mixed in some kirsch at some point,
 and if I didn't, I should have!
 Were I to use sour cherries from a jar, I would strain them and
 boil down the liquid by about 1/2 first, then add about a
 tablespoon of corn starch depending on the amount/thickness of 
 the syrup.  (Make sure you're getting pitted sour cherries in
 light syrup for this.)
 Place whipping cream and beater in the freezer.  Prepare a bowl of
 ice to place under the mixture.  
 Before starting to whip the cream, sprinkle the gelatin over the
 bowl of cold water.  Let sit for 5 minutes until the gelatin has
 softened.  Place over a hot water bath to completely dissolve the
 gelatin, or use the microwave, 20-30 seconds should do the trick.
 Stir thoroughly to avoid getting gelatin clumps.
 Start whipping the cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks
 form.  Add the sugar, and beat to incorporate.  Add the gelatin
 mixture in a thin stream.  Beat to stiff peaks.
 When the cake is cool, slice into 3 layers.  Refrigerate until
 ready to assemble the cake.  Prepare a soaking syrup by heating
 the water, mixing in the sugar, and stirring until completely
 dissolved.  Add cherry brandy.
 Reserve some of the plumpest, best-looking cherries, 12 or 16, plus
 2, just in case, for decoration.
 Place the first layer of cake on a cardboard round the size of the
 cake.  I usually place the top layer on the bottom, cut side up.
 Using a pastry brush, brush on some of the soaking syrup.  Place
 a generous quarter of the whipped cream on the cake going up to
 1/4 inch of the edge.  Make the edge a bit higher than the center.
 Place half the cherries onto the center of the cream, so that it
 comes to about a half inch from the side of the cake.  Place the
 second cake slice on top, brush on some syrup, and repeat with a
 quarter of the cream and half the cherries.  Brush the cut side of
 the remaining layer with soaking syrup and place it on top of the
 cake, cut side down.
 To finish the cake, start by putting a thin layer of whipped cream
 over the entire surface of the cake to cover all cracks and trap
 any loose crumbs.  Then cover the top of cake with a 1/4 inch layer
 of cream.  Smooth the top and then ice the sides with another 1/4
 inch of cream, saving about a cup for garnish.
 Hold the cake in one hand, and grab some chocolate shavings in the
 other, and gently apply the shavings all around the sides of the
 cake.  Take the remaining whipped cream and pipe rosettes at equal
 intervals.  (Start with 4 at the 4 cardinal points, then decide
 how many will fit in each quadrant.)  Stick a cherry on top of each
 rosette.
 Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving so the flavors have
 time to meld.
 ** The cake recipe is adapted from Julia Child's The Way to Cook.
 -- Sophie Laplante          -- G: (shouts) Who do you think you
 are? -- -- Dept of Computer Science -- R: Rhetoric!  Game and match!
 -- -- University of Chicago    --             --  Tom Stoppard
 -- -- sophie@cs.uchicago.edu   --                 R. & G. are Dead
 --