Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte - Black Forest Cake

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, also known in English as Black Forest Cake and also known in German as 'Schwaki' (that is my favourite name for this cake). What a great cake! It is chocolate, it is cream, it is cherry, it is cherry jam and if you consume alcohol, it is Kirsch. So many good things in one BIG cake!

I last had Schwaki nearly exactly two years ago, as I was leaving Germany to return back to Australia. I baked a Schwaki this weekend to commemorate the one I had in Schwaebisch Hall, kindly prepared by Ms U and Mr M and to also mourn my upcoming two year departure form Germany anniversary. Oh, and because I wanted to see if I could bake one. I still miss Germany. I miss the trains, the houses, the heating systems, the efficiency, the KiBas, the Mitfahrgelegenheit, the bargains at discount supermarkets, the changing of the seasons, the asparagus celebrations, the German sunshine, the brunches, the cheap rent etc. To be fair, there were things I did not like there; the red tape, the stupid opening hours of government offices, the manner of those who work in the government offices, Deutsche Bahn...

The Schwaebisch Hall Schwaki. It was so good!

  

Things I miss in picture form

Something I do not miss in picture form

First, I would like to express my disgust at people who use self raising flour in a Schwaki and still call it a Schwaki. Germans do NOT use self raising flour! NO! A Schwaki is also not a packet chocolate cake cut into layers with cherries in between each layer. A Schwaki is also not a fancy pants chocolate mud cake with rich chocolate ganache and fancy pants ingredients you have never heard of between each layer.

Now I have gotten that out of the way, lets start shall we?

Schwaki is a very time consuming cake. There are three components to this cake: the cake, the construction and the decoration.

The Cake
Recipe adapted from BACKEN: Die Grosse Neue Schule by Arnold Zabert (pg 64 & 65) and a Chefkoch.de recipe by Sofi. I have not included Kirsch as I do not consume alcohol
What you need 

  

Excuse the shadows, the usual light I use broke!

 

 What you need to do
1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees and grease and line and dust a 20cm diameter spring form baking tin. Grease the tin with a cooking spray or butter, then line the bottom and the sides with baking paper and then dust with flour. This should be enough precaution to ensure that your Schwaki comes out in one piece.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter. You do this by placing some hot water into a small saucepan and placing it over very low heat on a stove. Next, place your chocolate and butter into a bowl that can balance over the saucepan. Keep mixing the chocolate and butter in the bowl; the steam from the water in the saucepan will melt it for you.

3. Separate the eggs. Place the yolks in one bowl and the egg whites in another.

4. Add the melted chocolate/butter mix to the egg yolks and stir.

5. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

6. Mix together flour, corn flour and baking powder in a bowl. Sift this over the egg whites and lightly combine. Sounds weird but this is what you do.

7. Fold in the egg white mixture into the egg/chocolate mixture.

8. Place the mixture into your greased and lined spring form tin.

9. Bake for 40 minutes. I left my cake in the oven for 40 minutes but I think it was too long. Just test your cake with a skewer and if it comes out clean, it is done.

10. Once cooked through, let the cake cool before beginning with the next step 'Construction'

NOTE: You will need to cut your cake into 4 layers. My cake did not look tall enough to be cut into four layers, so I made two of the above cakes. Yes, I was up until 23:00 Friday night baking cakes. This is what happens when there is no Silent Witness on television!

Construction
What you need

 

What you need to do
1. Drain the cherries from the juice. Place the cherries, sugar and cinnamon into a saucepan and cook.

2. Mix water with corn flour and mix into the cherries. Take off the stove. I have no idea why this step is needed. I think it is to make the mixture thicker...however mine didn't become any thicker.

3. Cut your cake into four layers. This means, three cuts. Or, if you made two cakes like me, cut each one into two layers. I used a serrated knife and it worked quite well. If you use two cakes, you are going to have two cake bases; one will be the actual base of the whole cake and one will be used as a layer. I cut off the bottom of the one used as a cake layer, as I didn't want a crusty later in the middle of my cake.

4. Lay the bottom layer onto a plate. In a small bowl, mix together the jam and some of the juice from the cooked cherries. Spread this over the cake

Spread the jam/juice mixture over the bottom layer of the cake

5. Place the second layer of cake onto the first payer of cake. Spread the cooked cherries on this layer. I drained some of the juice away before doing so. Leave 12 cherries aside for decoration purposes.

 Placing the cooked cherries on the second layer

6. Whip the cream, add half a hand full of sugar to it once whipped and whip some more. Place the third layer of cake onto the second layer of cake. Spread half of the whipped cream over this layer of cake.

Cream on the top layer

7. Place the final layer on top of your other layers and top with more cream.

 More cream...

 Four layers of Schwaki:)

8. Finally, spread cream around the sides of the cake

Decoration

Quite simple. You will need some chopped up chocolate and if you wish, chocolate leaves.

Melt some chocolate using the same method mentioned in 'The Cake' section of this recipe. Once cooled, spread over some rose leaves (wash them first! Mine were so organic there were insects on them). Place in the fridge for a few hours to set. Once set, peel off the rose leaf. I am doing it incorrectly in the picture above. It is easier if you peel the leaf from the stem end.

 And then you have chocolate leaves:)

 Place chopped chocolate on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate the top with cherries and leaves.

 Lecker Lecker Schwaki! If you have nice neighbours, share some Schwaki with them. The cake is SO BIG you need to share it:)

To conclude, how would I rate my attempt at a Schwaki? This cake is the most time consuming and complicated cake I have ever made. Though, it is also the prettiest cake I have ever made:) I think I made a solid attempt at the cake for a first timer. I do like it, I think my attempt at a Schwaki tastes very nice and it does taste like a Schwaki...apart form the Kirsch.

To improve next time I make it (this will not be for a long time), I would do the following:
- Decrease the cooking time of the cake. The bases of both cakes were slightly too browned.
- Increase amount of baking powder in the cake. I didn't put enough baking powder into both cakes, as I misread the recipe :| This should mean that I will not have to bake two cakes and the cake will hopefully be spongier and lighter.
- Increase the amount of cherries. There don't seem to be enough cherries in the cake. The cherry layer is the best layer!