Black Forest Cake
1- 8″ Cake
You will need:
1 Recipe Chocolate Mousse
1 Recipe Chocolate Cake
1 Recipe Stabilized Whipped Cream
1 14oz Can Cherry Pie & Pastry Filling
Chocolate Shavings for Garnish and Maraschino Cherries *optional
Plain flour is referred to as all purpose flour or AP flour in the U.S.
golden syrup= corn syrup
essence= extract
icing sugar= powdered sugar
self-raising flour= self-rising flour
cornflour= cornstarch
bicarbonate of soda= baking soda
castor sugar= granulated sugar
Chocolate Mousse: Yields 2 Qts
Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate 1lb (454g)
Hot Water 1/2 c (4fl oz)
Dark Rum (I use Meyers) 1 Tablespoon
***If you do not want to use Rum leave it out and add 1Tablespoon more of hot water
Egg Whites 5 (150g)
Sugar 2Tablespoon (25g)
Cream Of Tartar 1/4teaspoon
Heavy Cream 2c (16 fl oz)
Mix Method:
First melt the chocolate in a large bowl.
Add the hot water to the melted chocolate all at once, very quickly while whisking vigorously to incorporate well.
Add the optional rum.
In a small bowl rub the cream of tartar through the granulated sugar to combine well.
In a clean mixing bowl with the whisk attachment whip the egg whites until foamy and then sprinkle in the sugar/cream of tartar very slowly.
Do not dump all the sugar at once or you will deflate your egg whites and they will not whip as full.
Continue whipping until you reach medium-firm peaks but not overwhipped to the point of “styrofoam”. The cream of tartar will help ensure you do not overwhip the whites.
In a separate mixer bowl, whip the heavy cream to make whipped cream to medium-firm peakes. Again be sure not to overwhip you cream.
Take a small portion of the egg whites and fold them into the chocolate mixture to lighten the mixture. Use a whisk to fold in the remainder of the whites and aerate the mixture.
Next do the same thing with a small amount of the whipped cream, lightening and aerating the mixture by whisking it through. Gently fold in the remainder of the whipped cream. Some small streaks of chocolate or whipped cream may remain. Tightly cover your bowl and refrigerate overnight.
Refrigerate until firm and use to fill cakes, or pastries or simply for serving in a bowl.
Be sure to refrigerate any pastry with Chocolate Mousse as it is highly perishable.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Whipped Cream for cake decorating sometimes needs a little help to maintain its integrity on cakes that may be expected to hold up for more than a few hours. With the help of a littlegelatin, you can achieve this.
For those of you who do not use gelatin, you may substitute agar agar in the same quantities.
For those of you who cannot find either, just leave it out. You will not have a “stabilized” whipped cream, but it’s not the end of the world. Many people use straight up whipped cream on their cakes and it is fine. This stabilized whipped cream only aids in preserving your cake for maybe an extra day. Whipped cream is so highly perishable and delicate that there is not much we can do to give it longer shelf life.
Plain Powdered Gelatin 7g (1 packets 1/4 oz )
Cold Water 1/4 c (2 fl oz)
Boiling Water 1/4 c ( 2 fl oz)
OR-
Stabilizer: Plain Powdered Gelatin 1 teaspoon
Cold Water 1-1/2 tablespoons
Boiling Water 1-1/2 tablespoons
Method:
Bloom the gelatin in the cold water. Let stand about 5 minutes.
Add the boiled water to the gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve. Use immediately in quantities specified in the recipe, or store the entire amount in a clean plastic container with a lid in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. Use as needed by melting desired amount in the microwave slowly. DO NOT FREEZE the gelatin mixture.
Whipped Cream Recipe:
2 cups Heavy Cream
1/4 cup Confectioners Sugar (or to taste if you like sweeter or less sugar)
Method:
In a small microwaveable bowl add 1 Tablespoon of the gelatin stabilizer and microwave on medium power for just 10 seconds at a time until it melts. DO NOT BOIL.
In another separate bowl add 1/4 c of the heavy cream from the above recipe for whipped cream. Microwave this until it is hot to the touch, then add it to the gelatin mixture.
Reserve.
Next pour the heavy cream into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid mixer with the whip attachment and whip on high speed.
As the cream begins to get frothy and gain volume you can add the confectioners sugar. Continue whipping until you achieve desired peaks necessary for your specific application. Just before you have reached your desired peaks consistency, pour in the warm cream/gelatin mixture and whip a few seconds longer.
Soft- Medium – Firm peaks are the 3 stages of whipping cream.
Always refrigerate any cake or dessert that is made with whipped cream as it is highly perishable.
It is not a great idea to store whipped cream for more than a day, it will lose its volume that we worked so hard to achieve. But if you MUST, 3 days maximum and you WILL have to re whip again, so in my opinion, what’s the point? You should really just do it ala minute.
Chocolate Cake
This recipe will make 2 thick 8″ Layers, or 1- 12″ X 18″ Layer Sheet Pan, or 24 standard sized cupcakes
Click here for more info on Pan Sizes.
I always recommend using parchment paper to line the bottom of any cake pans in addition to the pan grease. This will ensure clean release each and everytime.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate 113g (3/4 cup)
Cocoa Powder 24g (4 Tablespoons)
HOT water 4 fl oz (1/2 cup)
SOFT Unsalted Butter 169g (12 Tablespoons)
Whole Eggs room temperature 200g (4 Large)
Yolks room temperature 36g (2 large)
Sugar 200g (1 cup)
Vanilla X 1/2 fl oz (1 Tablespoon)
Yogurt 123g (1/2 cup)
Milk 4 fl oz (1/2 cup)
All Purpose Flour 225g (1 3/4 cup)
Baking Soda 7 g (1 1/2 teaspoons)
Salt 3g (1/2 teaspoons)
Mix Method:
In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer whip the eggs and the egg yolks on high speed with the whip attachment until foamy, and gradually start adding in your sugar very slowly.
The eggs will take about 5 minutes to reach the ribbon stage.
The ribbon stage is a stage where the egg/sugar mixture is very light in color, very thick and when you run the mixture off of a spatula or the beater blades, it makes a ribbon like effect before disappearing back into the mixture. You can also do a “figure 8″ pattern with the mixture and if it stays visible for a few seconds before disappearing you know you have achieved ribbon stage.
In the meantime while the eggs are whipping you can sift together the flour, baking soda and the salt and set that aside.
In a separate bowl combine the yogurt and milk together and set aside.
Next in another bowl add the cocoa powder to the hot water and whisk it smooth. This will be a muddy mixture to which you will next add the melted chocolate. Last you will add your SOFTENED butter and vanilla extract to this and whisk all smooth.
At this point your eggs should be ready, and you will add the entire melted chocolate/cocoa powder mixture to the whipped egg mixture, and whip until it is all uniform, just about 30 seconds more.
Next we begin the alternating of the dry ingredients with the liquid milk/yogurt mixture, beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with the dry, in 3 and 2 additions. (DRY-LIQUID-DRY-LIQUID-DRY)
Mixing just until incorporated between each addition as well as stopping to scrape the sides of your bowl from time to time too.
Pour the batter into your desired pans as listed above, and bake at 350 degrees F for approx 25-40 minutes or until it is springy to the touch and read UNTIL ITS DONE for more clarity on bake times!