Swiss Blackforest Cake-My 100th Post

 Ma 100th Post- Cause for celebrations !!..... Looking back, I'm still amazed at how far I've come within a year. Not exactly a year, but 11 months so far !! Since my first post( Methi Chicken with Sweet corn ), I've come up a long way and hope that you have enjoyed going through each of them. My blog consists mainly of my Mom's recipes who has been always into experimenting variety of dishes from her kitchen. She had spent almost 30 years of her life in middle-east where she was well- acquainted with cuisines from different parts of the world. But I couldn't do well in writing up my posts as expected because of my pregnancy . I was away from cooking and blogging for a while. Wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support till now and to get some feedback from you .

 Black Forest!! I just hate the one we get in bakeries becos of its sour cherries. I wanted to make it at home since I've seen that in  ma friend's page.. Shabs Cuisine.. She had done it so wonderfully that I decided to try out the same soon...


I was wanting to try her recipe, bt  i've posted a similar recipe (BlackForest Rasgulla Cake ) in my blog..So thought of trying something else this time. This recipe is an amalgamated version adapted from both Shabs Cuisine and Passionate About Baking - a blog owned by Deeba Rajpal -a passionate baker , a wonderful photographer and an awesome blogger too. I just stare at her pictures and bakes more often.




Moist Chocolate Cake
Recipe Courtesy: The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum


230gms dark chocolate
3/4 cup water
8 eggs
1 cup vanilla sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornflour

1.Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare 2 9 x 2″ spring form cake tins – greased, bottoms lined with baking parchment, greased and floured again.

2.Sift the flours.

3.In a large pan, bring the chocolate and the water to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency.  Cool completely.

4.Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed till tripled in volume, about 7-10 minutes.

5.Sift 1/2 the flour mix over the beaten egg mixture, and fold in gently but rapidly until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all the flour has disappeared. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated.

6.Pour immediately into prepared pans {about 2/3 full}, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula/butter knife, and invert onto lightly greased cooling racks. Re-invert to cool. {At this point, the cake stays at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for 2 months. }

For cherry filling and syrup:
(shabs cuisine)

½ kilo ripe dark cherries like Kordia variety, pitted and chopped, reserving 8 whole cherries or more depending on the size of cherries for decoration

¼ cup caster sugar

1/4 cup water

¼ tsp vanilla essence

Place chopped cherries, sugar, water in a sauce pan and gently bring to boil. Once it has come to boil, reduce heat and simmer until cherries have become slightly soft. Strain the cherries and place the liquid back to saucepan and gently simmer it until you have around ¾ cup of liquid left. If you had just around 1/2- 3/4 cup of syrup after boiling the cherries, that should be enough. Dont reduce it further.You need to have around 3/4 cup of syrup however for soaking the cake.

For Whip cream filling:

570 mls/ 2 ¼ cups double cream

4-5 tablespoons caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence

In a large bowl, place whipping cream and sugar and whip until it holds soft peaks. Add vanilla essence and whip until combined. Set aside.

Cake Assembling:

Split the chocolate cake horizontally to get  4 layers. Sprinkle both sides of each layer with the syrup, and reserve on platters. Place the bottom layer on the serving platter.

Reserve about 1/2 the cream for the topping and frosting. Take a third of the remaining cream and spread over the bottom later. Distribute 1/3 of the cherries over the cream, poking into the cream. Repeat with the remaining 3 layers.

Put about 1/2 a cup of cream in a piping bag to make rosettes on top if desired. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Cover the sides with grated dark chocolate. Pipe rosettes on top, sprinkle chocolate flakes in the centre, and place cherries on the rosettes. Chill until ready to serve. {I found the cake easier to cut with a serrated knife because of the cherries in the filling}