black forest gateau

May 20, 2007 at 3:21 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Chocolate, Fruit | 18 Comments

tonight we are having a birthday dinner for the may babies in my family – the brother, sister and uncle, so i decided to make a black forest cake – the uncle’s favourite.

i made a slight mistake of using too big a tin, so the cake didn’t achieve its intended height. i always seem to have a problem with that. when i whined to the boy, he urged me to practise on whole cakes. :p

the chocolate sponge looked promising, it was sufficiently moist. let’s hope the taste will be alright.

recipe for the sponge:

4 eggs
110g caster sugar
60g melted butter, cooled
85g plain flour, sifted
30g cocoa powder, sifted

for decoration:

pitted dark sweet cherries
chocolate shavings
whipping cream, whipped

1. line base of 20cm cake tin with greased greaseproof paper. grease the sides with margarine and dust with a little flour. tip out any excess.

2. in a bowl of an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. the mixture is ready when it leaves a ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted. whisk in butter quickly. if you do this too slowly, the cake will collapse.

3. fold in sifted flour and cocoa powder with a large metal spoon. pour into prepared pan. tap pan lightly on table top to break large air bubbles. bake in preheated 170 degrees celsius oven for 35-40 minutes. leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4. split cake into thin rounds and sandwich the layers with whipped cream and cherries. decorate top as desired.