Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte aka Black Forest Cake

This past Saturday I celebrated surviving another year. The last thing you want to be responsible for on your birthday is providing your own cake. However, if you don’t then you might end up with some horrible store bought cake with icky fondant, to me that would be worse then no cake at all.

I didn't get a chance to make a cake on Saturday because we were out for a day in Bath. Did a bit of exploring and stuff. Then back for a BBQ with close friends of the family, all in all a good day! There was a grand plan to make myself a cake on the Friday, but like most things I plan it didn't go accordingly. As I had all the ingredients I went a head and made it yesterday.

There was a little bit of trouble with it. The cake is super soft and delicious, but because it’s so soft when I was layering the cake up, the cake I choose for the middle layer split on me. It was definitely an eek moment. It just meant the next layer made it really squish out the side. After a bit of time in the fridge it’s all right, but it would also work as a trifle. Just layer it up in a bowl!

To be honest I don’t think I have ever had a Black Forest Cake. It’s a classic or retro cake that has stood the test of time. It even appears in more then one of Ursula Todd’s re-lives in Life After Life. This is the second cake I was talking about in the previous post where I shared the Sherry Cake.

The Sherry Cake represents Ursula's life at home and time of peace. Where this cake represents war and the somewhat darker sides of her life. Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte/Black Forest Cake is not only a favorite of our heroine but noted as a favorite of the Fuhrer himself. It is a well known fact that Hitler had a big sweet tooth

Life After Life questions if you had the opportunity to change things, would you? If you could have a second chance? If I could go back and make this cake again I would know to be more careful with the layers. However, I believe that no matter what choices we make some things cannot be changed - some things stay the same.

Black Forest Cake

185g unsalted butter

150g dark chocolate

125ml milk

175g self-rising flour

225g golden caster sugar

150g light brown sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

3 eggs

75ml buttermilk

6-8 tablespoons morello cherry conserve

ganache (recipe follows)

whipped cream (recipe follows)

fresh cherries to decorate

Heat the oven to 150C and grease/line three 7in/18cm cake tins.

Melt the butter, chocolate, and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool, while you mix the flour, both sugars, and cocoa powder together. Add the eggs to the dry mixture one at a time. Then when the chocolate mixture has cooled stir in the buttermilk before adding to the flour/egg mixture. Gently stir until combined. Pour into the prepared tin(s) dividing between the tins as evenly as possible. Bake for 45-50 minutes using the skewer test to make sure they are cooked through. When the cakes are out of the oven and cooling make the ganache and whipped cream.

Lay the first layer of the cake on a plate/board/stand and spread 3-4 tablespoons of the cherry conserve over the top, then pour ½ of the cooled ganache over it. Pipe 1/3 of the whipped cream in circles on top, leaving a little room around the edge. Repeat with the next layer. Finish the top with the whipped cream and fresh cherries.

ganache

200ml double cream

25ml kirsch

1 tbsp honey

100g dark chocolate, broken up

Simmer the cream, kirsch, and honey together before adding in the dark chocolate. Whisk until shiny.

whipped cream frosting

500ml double cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

25g golden caster sugar

Whip the cream, vanilla, and sugar together until it holds a soft peak.

notes: Recipe loosely adapted from Jaime’s Comfort Food - Sherry Cake & more on Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - Other retro cake: Pineapple upside down cake. Recommendations for World War 1 & 2 fictional novels. Follow Teddy Todd's (Ursula's brother) story in Kate Atkinson's new novel A God in Ruins. All opinions are my own and I purchased Life After Life for my Kindle App.

Sherry Cake: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life had been on my reading list for ages. I downloaded it on to my kindle app last summer when it was on sale for only 99p, but have only recently gotten around to reading it.

It’s a bit of a mind fuck. Excuse my language, but it is. Everyone says you should never play the “what if” game. The “what if’s” can range from big to little choices we make every day.

For example: You walk the same way to work every day, but one day you choose to walk a different way. You later find out that there was a huge smash up on the road you cross at the time you should have been crossing it. Was it luck? Or did you already subconsciously know something?

Ursula Todd is our main character and we see her story played out as a lot of “what if’s.” There are several scenarios that we return over and over again and each time something is different sometimes it’s a little change and other times it’s life saving.

There is a lot of cake and other teatime treats mentioned in this book. There are two specific cakes that really stood out to me and this is the first and more simple of the two, but just as tasty. It’s a Sherry Cake, it’s served as a tea time treat by Mrs. Glover to Sylvia, Ursula’s mother, and her friends who visit from London to see the newest baby. Ursula and the dog are waiting in the garden in hopes to catch some crumbs.

The cake and the general drinking of sherry throughout the story really helped make you feel like you were in the past. It is these simple or minor things that take a story from being good to great.

It turns out Sherry Cake is pretty easy to make. It’s great when you find such an easy cake that gives such a big reward! It has a rich sherry flavor and it's super soft. It's just amazing! For a bit of nostalgia try it out yourself! 

Sherry Cake

125g butter, room temperature

125g golden caster sugar

225g self-rising flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200ml sweet sherry

icing sugar to dust

Heat the oven to 180C and line and grease a square or round 8 inch pan. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Then add half of the flour and mix until combined. Then add the bicarb, extract, sherry, and the rest of the flour until just combined. Pour into tin and bake for 35-45 minutes. Leave to cool completely before dusting with the icings sugar. Enjoy!

notes: Don't forget that this week is Bookies to Foodies over on A Flurry of Ponderings! Go have a look for more food stuff that has been inspired by other bloggers favorite books! A God in Ruins is a follow up to Life After Life that was recently published. It follows Ursula’s younger brother Teddy. Definitely will be reading that one! The recipe for the Sherry Cake was adjusted from this online source.