Black Forest Gateau

This Black Forest gateau is one of the best and easiest cakes I’ve made to date.

If you know anything about my blog or YouTube channel, then you’ll know that I’ve shared various versions of this recipe since I started back in 2016 – each a little different to the last. If you’re interested, you can check out the other black forest recipes I’ve shared before now; Black Forest cookies, Black Forest gateau 2019, square Black Forest gateau, rectangular Black Forest cake and Black Forest pavlovas.

It wouldn’t quite be the same if I wasn’t to upload this cake, it’s ultimately become a tradition at this point. Just incase you haven’t heard of how I make my Black Forest gateau, here’s a quick run down. It’s layers of chocolate cake, sandwiched together with cream and cherry jam, then coated with lashings of fresh cream and finished with chocolate, cream rosettes and cherries.

This cake uses some products from the lovely people over at Cocoarunners. If you’re looking to use the best possible quality ingredients, you should check them out. They have an excellent baking and cooking range, including cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, milk chocolate, dark chocolate and unsweetened chocolate (also, check out the make your own chocolate bar).

This cake is the perfect alternative to make, especially for those who aren’t massive fans of buttercream and prefer something lighter and less sweet. I make this cake several time throughout the year as it’s my moms favourite, so whether its a retro throwback you’re looking for or juts a sweet treat, give this cake a try, you won’t regret it.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g butter

250g granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

2 tsp vanilla extract.

220g plain flour.

30g cocoa power.

1 1/2 tsp baking powder.

pinch of salt.

milk (only if needed, to help with the consistency).

 

Cream:

600ml double cream.

100g icing sugar.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

cherry jam (use homemade or shop bought, its your choice).

 

Finishing:

200g dark chocolate, grated.

cherries, cocktail or maraschino – either work well.

 

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I like to start by preheating the oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all of your ingredients and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and mixing bowl, along with a spatula.

To start, take your mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, then beat the two together for around 7-10 minutes or until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once you’ve achieved that, you can go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bit’s that may not have been fully incorporated from earlier on.

Then you can add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition, don’t forget to add in the vanilla extract and mix in until its fully incorporated into the mixture. This will help you achieve the perfect consistency and lowers the chances of curdling/scrambling the cake batter.

Now the eggs have all been added, you can go ahead and give the bowl another good scraping down, this is again to incorporate any bit’s that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Add in the dry ingredients, passing them through a sieve first, just to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Then you can go ahead and mix everything together on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed, adding a tablespoon of milk to help get the perfect consistency (use as much or as little milk as needed).

Take the bowl and give it a final good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any of those final pesky bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Split the cake batter between your prepared 3×6 inch cake tins and get it as equal as possible (you can do this by using scales and getting the total weight of the cake batter and dividing it by 3 and place that amount into each cake tin), I just eyeballed it and they all turned out pretty well, being honest.

Bake the cakes in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until well risen (and a tester comes out clean, when inserted into the centre of the cake).

Now is the perfect time to have a good clean down and get prepared for when the cakes are baked. This is also the ideal time to make the simple syrup – which is ridiculously easy.

To make the simple syrup, place the water and sugar into a small saucepan and mix. Then place on the hob over a medium-high heat until it reaches a boil, then remove from the heat and allow to cool before using. If you want to make this ahead of time, you can, its perfect to make ahead of time.

To make the cream, grab a clean mixing bowl and pour in your double cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Go ahead and whisk everything together until it starts to thicken, it should hold it’s shape. Ideally, it would be somewhere between soft and stiff peaks. It’s important that you only whip the cream up as you intend to use it, it’s best not made ahead of time.

To start the assembly of the cake, take your cake layers and level them off, so they’re flat and level. Brush the cake layers over generously with simple syrup, this will help keep the cake fresh and moist.

Take a cake stand/board/plate and spread a small amount of cream into the centre and press the first layer of cake into place, pressing down to secure it in place. Top the first layer of the cake with a generous of cream and spread it out, then add a heaped tablespoon of jam into the centre and spread it out until you have a good spread of jam.

Repeat this with your remaining cake layers – until its completely stacked. Then you can apple the cream coating – apply a generous layer of the freshly whipped cream, don’t worry if it get’s a few cake crumbs in it, you’ll be covering it all in chocolate anyway.

Ensure the cream coating is generously applied, you cannot be tight with the cream – it’s a celebration of course. Keep a small amount of cream back and place into a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle of choice – store in the fridge until needed later on.

Then go ahead and apply the chocolate coating. This is just grated chocolate, ensure you have a good coverage all over the cake. You can do this using your hands or a scraper and drag the chocolate over the cake – whichever way works best for you.

Place in the fridge and allow to chill and firm up – around 30 minutes should be perfectly ideal.

To finish the cake off, take the cake from the fridge and the cream in the piping bag. Then go ahead and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake, then top them with cherries and serve.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.