After considerable sleuthing, after asking lots of friends who wished they had done it, I have found my benefactor. The mysterious copy of Chocolate Cake, 150 Recipes from Simple to Sublime by Michelle Urvater, that appeared in my PO box months ago came from.... (drum roll) my baby sister J.L.! Again, I truly am wild with gratitude for this magical gift and plan to send something chocolate J.L.'s way as soon as the temperature in the large southern state where she lives stabilizes to 2-digit numbers. It's been the hottest summer on record in her part of the universe, but fall weather will come. Someday.
There's a plethora of recipes and techniques for Black Forest Cake. I started out with the one in Michelle's book but quickly strayed as you will soon see. Chocolate Butter Sponge Cake Layers, page 187 in Chocolate Cake was my first attempt at foam cake. There is a great deal of room for me to improve. Adjusting for altitude and tweaking for two round 8 1/2 inch cake pans, I produced two chocolate pancakes.
Longing for a tall and sumptuous layer cake, I awoke at 4:00am the following morning and made my grandmother's Chocolate Prize Cake. This made three 8 1/2 inch rounds. With again, altitude adjustments, these layers were considerably taller.
Never one to leave well enough alone, I assembled all five layers into a leaning, towering, much-too-tall cake. The filling was Chocolate Ganache, Michelle's book page 324, along with canned cherry pie filling. Frosted with whipped cream and decorated with more cherry pie filling on top and with about a quarter pound of grated milk chocolate, this skyscraper of a confection was too high to fit in the covered cake carrier. It arrived at lunch with friends a little squashed. Luckily, these are terrific friends, truly. They have discriminating culinary tastes, but they are generous of spirit, willing to provide this particular baker with an easy audience. Thank goodness.
This cake taught me volumes about confectionery baking. One lesson learned is: foam cake takes practice. The next time there's call for Black Forest cake, I plan to do it this way.
Black Forest Cake
First bake my grandmother's Prize Chocolate Cake.
For this recipe, I thank my middle sister, J.E., who took notes from our grandmother. She (Mom, our grandmother) called this a "good, light cake". She thought the original recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens, but she never made any cake according to the recipe. Always she had some permutation, some plan in mind to bake something better. Here's Mom's version.
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate - or cocoa powder if that's what you have on hand
5 eggs
1 teaspoon of soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups cake flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch pans. (I always add a round of parchment in the bottom of the pans and grease and flour that, too.)
Stir shortening to soften, add sugar gradually, creaming with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in the vanilla and cooled chocolate (or cocoa). Add the eggs, 1 at a time beating well after each . Sift the dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until the top is springy and a toothpick comes out clean.
Ingredients you'll need after the layers cool:
Cassis or cherry brandy
Wilderness brand MoreFruit Cherry Pie Filling
Batch of Michelle's Chocolate Ganache,
as well as a batch of her Beginner's Buttercream, page 309, but without the coffee
Whipped cream for decorating the top
Milk or semisweet chocolate, grated
The next day or after the layers are completely cool, brush them with a little creme de cassis liqueur or cherry brandy.
Fill between the layers with Chocolate Ganache and cherry pie filling, saving a few cherries to garnish the caketop.
Assemble the layers and ice with Michelle's Beginner's Buttercream frosting, page 309, but leave out the coffee .
Decorate the top with whipped cream, the last few cherries, and the amount of grated milk chocolate that seems right to you.
It's best served the day it's assembled, but will keep for 2 days refrigerated, especially if the whipped cream is dolloped onto each individual serving, rather than applied to the entire caketop.
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