Four chocolate layers filled with vanilla bean and brandy mousse, studded with Morello cherries and ganache drizzled over. Everyone needs their version of Black Forest Cake. Here is mine and I hope it will becomes yours as well!
If you are a chocoholic like me, take a look at my Honeycomb Crunch Chocolate Cake.
I’ve been holding back on blogging this cake for far too long. You see, when most of you were celebrating Thanksgiving last Thursday we were celebrating my husband Brad’s birthday.
And he requested his favourite cake.
Black Forest Cake is Brad’s favourite but I have never made it for him. Unfortunately for him, I never cared for it much and mostly for good reasons-the artificial taste of chocolate layers and the electric red of maraschino cherries never appealed to my European taste.
Some call it snobbism, I call it “I didn’t grow up in North America syndrome”. 🙂
However, the cake is actually German and I know I LOVE German cakes. Love love love them.
This version of Black Forest is plenty traditional. It’s dark. It’s boozy. It’s Black Forest.
What ingredients are in Black Forest Cake?
Four chocolate layers filled with vanilla bean and brandy mousse, studded with Morello cherries and ganache drizzled over in a Jackson Pollock manner.
I am also happy to tell you that the cake is incredible easy to make. This is how you do it.
How to make this cake at home
Lucky for us this famous cake is not difficult to make at home. All you have to do is to bake chocolate sponge layers. Then fill them with vanilla and brandy flavoured whipped cream, interspersed with delicious cherries.
The photo guide belows will show you exactly how I did it.
How do I decorate Black Forest Cake?
I am not entirely sure why but I always thought of Black Forest Cake as a Christmas cake. When I told my husband about it he was really surprised. But I guess it’s because we tend to eat it around Christmas since his birthday is at the end of November.
I also think the Black Forest itself and all the woodland creatures make me think of Christmas, so I decorated it along those lines.
Tips for making this cake extra delicious
So what sets this Black Forest Cake recipe apart from all the others is amarena cherries aka the best thing that happened to Morello Cherries! Amerena cherries (you can see them in the collage above) are demi-glacé cherries in a delicious syrup made with the sour cherry variety!
I learned about them from my Italian friend Angela and every time I see them I buy a jar, so I would never go without.
I brushed chocolate cake layers with a combination of Amarena cherry syrup and a splash of brandy. The result is nothing short of divine!
More chocolate cake recipes:
- Christmas Chocolate Cake with Cranberries
- Black and White Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Compote
- Malted Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Truffle Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- Flour- 1 3/4 cups/220g
- Sugar- 1 1/2 cups/300g
- Cocoa- 3/4 cup/90g
- Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp.
- Baking soda- 1 1/2 tsp.
- Salt- 1 tsp.
- Eggs- 2 large
- Milk- 1 cup/250ml
- Vegetable oil- 1/2 cup/125ml
- Vanilla- 2 tsp.
For the filling
- Whipping cream/double cream- 2.5 cups/600ml
- Sugar- 1/2 cup/100g
- Brandy- 2 tbsp.
- Vanilla bean-1
- Gelatine- 3 tsp.
- Water- 3 tbsp.
- Cherries from Amarena cherry conserve chopped-1 cup
- 1/4 cup/70ml cherry syrup
- 2 tbsp brandy
For Chocolate Ganache
- Whipping Cream- 1/2 cup/125 ml
- Dark Chocolate chopped- 125 gr
- 8 fresh cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C
- In a large mixing bowl combine sifted flour and cocoa, sugar, baking powder and baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Pour into two 8" pans.
- Bake at 350F/180C for 30 minutes.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
- In a 1-cup glass measuring cup combine cold water and gelatin. Let stand for 2 minutes. Place measuring cup in a microwave and heat for 15 seconds until gelatine is completely dissolved.
- Run a sharp knife along the length of a vanilla bean, open it and with a blade of a knife scrape out the seeds.
- In a large mixing bowl beat whipping cream, sugar, vanilla bean seeds and brandy with an electric mixer on medium speed while gradually drizzling gelatin mixture over cream mixture. Continue beating cream mixture until stiff peaks form. (Adding gelatine to the filling gives it more stability.)
- Cut each cake layer in two. You will have 4 layers.
- Brush the cake layers with the mixture of cherry syrup and brandy.
- Fill the cake with the vanilla cream filling and chopped morello cherries. Leave 1/4 of the whipped cream for the sides and the top.
- Cover the sides and the top of the cake with the whipping cream.
To make the ganache
- Heat 1/2 cup of whipping cream in a saucepan and take off the heat just when it's about to come to a boil.
- Pour over chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a minute, then stir.
- Drizzle chocolate ganache over the edge of the cake. Pipe rosettes and decorate with fresh cherries. Sprinkle grated chocolate on top of the cake.
- Chill in the fridge for the mousse filling and chocolate ganache to set. Keep refrigerated.
Hi ,
I just want to know whether we can use 1 cup of buttermilk instead of milk to make the cake
Thank you
I think it will work, Jayani
Thank you Julia Frey for the recipe . Is very yummy, my family love it very much. The best recipe.
My pleasure!! 🙂
Just a suggestion: I cannot understand why but I always have better luck stabilizing whipping cream with granulated gelatin rather than sheet gelatin. It does seem to blend better into the cream. If you have difficulty with getting sheet gel to distribute, perhaps this idea can help you. It is such a gorgeous cake, it seems worth the experiment.
Great tip, Patricia. Thank you for sharing!
Do I have to put gelatin into/onto the cream? ( Is it a must)
No, you don’t have to add gelatine to the cream, Sherrie. It makes it more stable and mousse like but you can do without!
I started this recipe and was using the gram measurements. Something looked a bit off after I started putting them in the bowl before wet ingredients. You may want to check your cups to grams conversion. I think at least one is very incorrect. Didn’t have time to do conversion, so just did with cup measurements.
Do you mind sharing what seemed very incorrect, Melissa because I can’t see it and I’ve made this cake countless times.
Hi! Can we omit the brandy or use less? Kids will be eating it and not sure if it’s too strong for them
You can certainly reduce the amount of brandy to 1 tbsp or omit it altogether, Matilde.
Hi. I’ve been searching just for DECENT recipe for this cake. OH MAN you delivered a PERFECT one! I love this. I couldn’t find the cherries you used so I took fresh dark cherries, cut them, cooked in sugar with a little brandy and used them. So good…
HOWEVER, could you elaborate a little more on adding the gelatin to the whipped icing? I followed what you said to the letter and it globbed up all through my icing which isn’t that nice eating…Plus I then had to make a second batch (didn’t work then either) to cover the whole cake (Guess I’m an icing hog). What am I doing wrong? I used great value flavorless gelatin packets.
I am so glad you loved this cake. It is definitely one of our favourites! I am sorry you had trouble with gelatin but I don’t really have much to add besides what I already put in the instructions. That’s exactly how I do it, I just drizzle the gelatin dissolved in water over the whipping cream. I would suggest trying a different brand. I use Knox if that helps.
400g cacao, 90g sugar – is that right???
Not at all, Elize, the other way around! Thank you for catching that, not sure what happened there!I just updated the recipe by adding grams and must’ve typed in the wrong line.
Just came here to write that. I made the cake and unfortunately did not pay enough attention. So by the time I added the 400g of cocoa, I finally realised that that is a mistake. What a waste 🙁 . Had to run to the shops late at night and try again.
Oh well, mistakes happen to all bakers. Welcome to the club, Tanja! 🙂
I made this it was awesome!!!. My whole family enjoyed after taking it. Thanks for this amazing recipe………
That is great!!
Hey Vikalinka!
I am planning to bake this beautiful and delicious cake soon. 🙂
Just have a few questions for you: what do you do with the brandy liquid after soaking the cherries overnight? Can I soak the cake with it or will it be too mushy? Also, as for whipping cream, are you using unsweetened liquid cream or heavy whipping cream or the one that is already whipped and sweetened? If I have 12-inch pans, should I make 1.5 X of your portion?
Thanks so much for all amazing work you do online!!!
Oxy
Hi Oksana, You can definitely drizzle the brandy over the cakes, just not too much because these cake layers are very moist already. You can also use that brandy in cocktails. 😉 I use heavy whipping cream, which is called double cream in England. Finally, for 12-inch pans I would double the recipe. I hope this helps.
Cheers, Julia
Thank you for this recipe. I made it for Christmas. It was so delicious. I made it Christmas eve and put it in the refridgerater overnight. No need to put it back in on Christmas day as it disappeared. It’s a winner with my crowd. It will be the cake I make for Christmas now.
Wonderful, thank you so much for sharing!
Can I make the cake the night before serving it?
Yes, absolutely, Sylvia but it needs to be refrigerated as it has lots of cream.
I have cherry whiskey at home, but no cherry brandy. Do you think it’ll work the same? Can’t wait to make this for Christmas!
Anu, you can definitely use cherry whiskey as long as you like the taste of it. 🙂
Personally I think your cake is exceptionally pretty. Our local grocery store bakery makes cakes decorated similarly and yours is just as good if not better. Your outer mousse layer is really good! I can’t frost the outside of a cake to save anyone’s life. My family and I will be visiting an area with German grocery stores soon so I’m keeping an eye out for those cherries. Making this for Christmas as someone above mentioned is a great idea! I admit I’m a little nervous about splitting the cake layers in two, tho (Any advice on that part? Making cakes like this one make me nervous in general. Maybe it doesn’t matter if they’re not perfectly even layers?).
This is what I do when I want even layers- I score the outside of a cake with a sharp knife, then wrap a thread around the slit, bring the ends together and pull. Perfect every time. I hope it helps. Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
Thank you very much, that makes perfect sense!
Superb cake! Great pics 🙂 ela
I didn’t know and was just thinking I need to figure it out!! Thank you so much. 🙂
Wow! Simply wow! I’ve never made black forest cake because somehow it never really appealed to me, but your cake just sang to me right now)) I love how moist the chocolate layers look. I must make this soon!
Yum! I will be making this for Christmas!
I hope you love it Oksana as much as we did!
What a gorgeous and indulgent cake!
Your cake is stunning! I love messy cakes and I so agree that no five minute rule apply!
I believe I have everything except the preserves for decorating…
I always get stressed when things get messy but the end result is always delicious so who cares, right! 🙂
Oh man – black forest is my favourite cake ever. How can that much whipped cream be bad? HOW?
LOL it simply CAN’T.