Swiss Black Forest Cake with Moist Chocolate Genoise

Swiss Black Forest Cake with Moist Chocolate Genoise

Recipe source: Rose Levy Beranbaum

It has been days since I baked a chocolate cake. My kiddo demanded a make one for him right now. Daddy dearest piped up instantly that he doesn’t want a chocolate one. So now I have to make two cakes, one chocolate and one non chocolate.

I didn’t want to make the same old brownie this time. Out came my go-to book, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Cake Bible”. I was soon lost in the pages. The lady is a genius!! She has explained everything so simply and systematically.

 I decided to make a Moist Chocolate Genoise. After reading and understanding the recipe fully I came across this post script which mentioned that this cake has been used to make Swiss Black Forest Cake and Triple Chocolate Cake. That is when I decided to take a step ahead and turn this into the trusty old Black Forest.

This is my personal opinion but I feel that any cake that has whipped cream in it tastes better the next day. Maybe it is because the cake gets more time to absorb the moisture and taste from the cream layers.

Ingredients

227 gms dark chocolate, grated

236 gm/1 liquid cup boiling water

8 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 ½ cups cake flour

For the syrup

¼ cup+ 3tbsp sugar

¼ cup liquid cup

3 tbsp liqueur of your choice ( I didn’t have any so I skipped this )

Assembling the cake

3 cups whipping cream

2 cup tinned cherries

Line and grease a 9” springform pan. This has to be the minimum size otherwise your batter will spill over while baking.

Now we come to cake flour. No need to panic!! Doesn’t matter if you don’t have cake flour. It can be made easily! For every cup of cake flour you have to take out 2 tbsp flour from 1 cup normal flour and replace it with 2 tbsp cornflour. 

So for 1 ½ cups cake flour I took 1 ½ cups normal flour, took out 3 tbsp of normal flour and added 3 tbsp of cornflour. And your cake flour is ready for this recipe.

Now the chocolate here is cooked for about 15 minutes which helps release its flavour. Put a pan n heat. Put the water in it and bring to a boil. As it starts boiling add the grated chocolate. Keep stirring and cooking for approximately 15 minutes till it thickens to a pudding like consistency. Now cool it completely or your eggs will curdle.

Now comes the hard part. Whisking!!! Take all the 8 eggs in a big bowl. 

Add the sugar. 

Start whisking. The whole thing will triple in volume. Yes! Three times!!! This will take about 20 minutes.

Once the eggs have tripled then is the time to add flour. You better sit down for this part because it is going to take patience and delicate handling.

Take a rubber spatula. Pour in half the flour into the bowl with beaten eggs. The flour will immediately sink and disappear into the bottom. Gently try folding in the flour with the spatula. Add the other half of the flour. 

Remember you can not beat the batter otherwise the eggs will deflate. The beaten tripled eggs are what give volume to the cake. And also remember the flour is all settled at the bottom. Keep folding gently. Dig the spatula deep into the bottom and bring it up. The unmixed flour will also come up with the spatula. Keep doing till all the flour is mixed. 

Now add the chocolate mix. Fold in gently.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Pour the batter into the springform tin. 

Bake for 40 minutes.

The cake will rise beautifully but after you take it out it will sink a little in the middle. 

Take out immediately. Loosen the sides with a knife and take out the cake. Let it cool.

Trim the sides and top with a knife for smoother finish.

Meanwhile make the syrup. Boil the water, sugar and liqueur for 5 minutes.       

Let it cool.

Assembling the cake

Whip the cream till stiff peaks form. Keep aside 10 cherries and deseed the rest. Chop the deseeded cherries.

Slice the cake into two. Apply syrup on the two halves. Spread some whipped cream on one half and spread the chopped cherries.

 Place the other half of the cake on top. Now cover the top and sides of the cake with rest of the whipped cream. Decorate with whole cherries and some grated chocolate.

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