Black forest cake , Bangladeshi bakery style

Black forest cake , Bangladeshi bakery style

“Black Forest gâteau (British English) and Black Forest cake (American English and Australian English) are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (pronounced [ˈʃvaʁt͡svɛldɐ ˈkɪʁʃˌtɔʁtə]), literally “Black Forest cherry-torte”. Black Forest cake originated in Germany.
Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top.[1] Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the cake, although other liquors are also used (such as rum, which is common in Austrian recipes). In the United States, Black Forest cake is most often prepared without alcohol. German statutory interpretation states Kirschwasser as a mandatory ingredient, otherwise the cake is legally not allowed to be marketed as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.” – ( Source – Wikipedia)

But in Bangladesh , the black forest version is of course without liquor and no matter what, this version tastes better than any version of the world!!! Anyone who tasted the famous Sumi’s Hotcake’s black forest , will definitely agree with me . Just wanted to give a try . Most of the home made black forest I tried are not even closer to the original recipe , since most of them are with chocolate sponge !! But the taste I remember , is not from regular chocolate sponge . The cake base Sumi’s bakery uses for black forest , is more kindda moist chocolate cake !! Keeping the taste on mind and in heart , just invented this recipe !!! 😛 “necessity is the mother of all invention” indeed !!!! :O

Ingredients :

2 eggs , room temperature
1 cup of all purpose flour + 2 tbl spoon of cornstarch/ cornflour
1/2 cup of Cocoa Powder
1 and 1/4 cup of sugar ( powdered)
1/3 cup of vegetable oil+ 1/4  cup butter
1/3 rd  cup of hot coffee ( just take 1/3 cup of hot after and mix 2 heaped tea spoon of coffee in it )
1 cup of buttermilk ( look the note for substitute)
1 tea spoon vanilla essence
1 tea spoon of white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Other Ingredients:

Canned cherry and syrup from that can ( go through the note for cherry syrup substitute)
Whipped cream

Procedure :

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 6 ” round pans and line with parchment or wax or butter paper  . This cake tends to stick on the bottom, as it is very moist , so don’t forget to use parchment , wax or butter paper . I have seen spring form pans work better in this type of cake .

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour , cornstarch , and cocoa powder. Sift twice . Don’t use the baking soda now . We will use it later .

3. Beat vegetable oil , shortening and 1 and 1/3 rd cups of caster sugar( powdered sugar) with the electric hand beater until very light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add the vanilla essence .

4. Now alternately add the flour mixture , hot coffee and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing with a spatula. That is , put some flour , mix , then add buttermilk , mix . Continue like this . Flour , then coffee . Don’t over mix .

5 . Now in a small cup combine baking soda and vinegar and quickly mix in the cake batter . Don’t beat or overmix now . Just fold in to the cake batter. This is the trick that would make your cake softer and very moist . But you have to work quickly , so divide the cake batter into the greased pans and put them immediately inside the pre-heated oven to bake . If you don’t bake them immediately , the cake will fall flat and the trick will fail . So if your oven is not big enough to put two cake pans at the same times, a little trick to share with you . When your cake batter is ready , before you put the vinegar-soda mixture , divide them equally in two bowls , and mix half of the vinegar and soda ( half teaspoon each ) to one mixture, pour into one greased pan and bake. After taking them out from the oven , take remaining batter and add vinegar-soda mixture , that is half teaspoon of vinegar and half teaspoon of soda ( since the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of soda and vinegar) and pour it into the greased pan and bake.

6. Bake the cake at 350 FH in a pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes clean . Don’t over bake . I always cover the pans with aluminium foil like tent , so that the top must rise evenly and without crust .

7. Cool the cakes completely and then cut them into halves horizontally . Now you have four layers of cake . Moisten each layer with cherry syrup. Don’t use too much , just enough to moisten . Keep it in the fridger before you apply whipped cream over it .

After assembling keep it in the fridge at least 5/6 hours . It tastes better the following day !!! 🙂

Notes:

1. If you don’t get buttermilk , take 1 cup of luke warm or room temperature milk . Add 1 tbl spoon of white vinegar and keep it aside for 15 minutes . After 15 minutes the thing you get is your buttermilk .

2. I used the cherry syrup in this recipe . This is the syrup from the can of the cherries . If you don’t use canned cherry , you can substitute this syrup with cake syrup or any juice . For the cake syrup add some vanilla into thin sugar syrup and your cake syrup is ready . But to get the flavor , please try to use the canned cherry and the syrup .

3. For whipped cream , beat the heavy cream until thickens , then add icing sugar and beat until stiff . For 1 cup of heavy cream , use 2 tbl spoon of icing sugar . Always use stainless / metal or glass bowl to make whipping cream and before you whip the cream , keep the bowl into the fridge to chill . 🙂