Cakes Around the World: Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

My recreation of the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Typical Black Forest Cake in India 

Since childhood, the words ‘Black Forest Cake, brought in mind, the joyful memories of birthdays and secret swipes of finger licking cream off the sides. The typical Black Forest Cake found in Indian bakeries, is a three-layered chocolate sponge doused in sugar syrup with whipped topping in between and top. It is most recognizable by the chocolate shavings covering the cream border.

It is a household favourite and loved by all.

However, during my brief stay in Germany, a little trip to the birthplace of the dessert, it dawned on me that the pastry that I had been eating all this while, was a poor remake! The authentic German Black Forest cake or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (literal: Black Forest cherry cake) was nothing like the ones found here. The main and most important ingredient was missing! Kirsch.

Kirsch or otherwise commonly known as Kirschwasser (literal: cherry water), is a dry, colourless brandy distilled from the fermented juice of the black morello cherry. Everything from the sponge to the filling and topping had traces of this delicious liqueur.

Suddenly, baking simple chocolate cakes with an accompanying ganache wasn’t enough. That moment was probably when a tiny voice in the back of my mind urged me to expand my horizons and drove me to develop a passion to explore more exotic desserts and try and recreate them. The content ahead will brief you about the speciality of the Black Forest cake, its history and finally take you through the process of recreating this scrumptious dish. 

credit: lazycatkitchen

Basic Structure and Taste

A traditional Black Forest cake consists of three to four layers of chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirsch syrup. The sponge layers are made with a high number of eggs with little to no fat and no other wet ingredients. This makes them drier and less moist than their American counterparts. This is required because, if the American cake is soaked in Kirsch, it will end up soggy and fall apart.

It is then slathered with a generous layer of whipped cream in between each sponge and a kirsch infused cherry filling. The cherries used are Morello cherries (pitted sour cherries often used for tarts, jams, and pie fillings). If those are not available, red tart cherries are the next best option. Any other substitutes like cherry pie filling or canned cherries in thick syrup will result in your finished product to be much sweeter than the original. The cake layers are usually made with Dutch cocoa powder which is the most commonly available cocoa powder in Europe and provides a rich, darker chocolaty taste than natural cocoa powder.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in a 
German bakery 

Tracing the origins

There are several stories around the origins of this dessert, the most probable being- the birthplace of the cake would have been the Black Forest region in Germany which is known for its sour cherries and Kirschwasser. The name might have been a metaphor for the dark, loamy aura of deep, shady forest, the cake evokes. Others argue that the cake bears resemblance to the ‘Bollenhut’ costumes made with red pompoms for the women performing traditional dances, thus deeming its name. Modern theory suggests that Josef Keller, manager of the Café Agner in Bad Godesberg, invented this cake at his restaurant in 1915.

Naturally, the Black Forest Cake enjoys a distinguished notoriety in German regions, but it has also spread as a traditional delicacy in Austria, Switzerland, and northern regions of Italy.

In these countries, the cake is prepared with little to no variations- the distinguishing feature being the dark wild (sour) cherries. The use of kirsch is however variable as in certain Swiss and Austrian recipes, it is often replaced by rum. 

Recreating the delicacy with a vegetarian twist

Since the flavours of the pastry exploded on my tongue, my palette has not been able to forget the array of flavours and so it was decided that I simply must try and replicate the recipe for my Dad’s birthday. I must have gone through at least ten websites and recipe cards before I found one that incorporated everything I remember through my sensory aids.

Planning the process and collecting the ingredients was in no way simple but it was certainly educational- I explored several techniques and the chemistry of various ingredient combinations. In a country like India, finding foreign condiments of ensured quality is not an easy task so it almost two weeks for all my ingredients- canned cherries to gold powder for decoration- to arrive. 

Another challenge was making the cake base eggless. Our family does not consume or cook with eggs, so replacing them in recipes that call for copious amounts of yolk is tricky. After some research it came to my attention that egg replacer was a good vegan substitute however, I did not want to spend more on this cake since it already summed up to an arm and leg, so I decided to improvise. Egg is ultimately used to provide structure and add moisture and fluffiness to the cake. This chemistry can be replicated by mixing curd and baking soda together (moisture) or vinegar and baking soda (fluffy texture). Although these combinations are not perfect, either of them usually does the trick for most eggless recipes.

The recipe that I referred to, called for 6 eggs and it was the only wet ingredient. So replacing all these eggs with only curd and baking soda would result in the cake deflating after resting. Applying my prior baking knowledge, I incorporated both the combinations in specific proportion to replace 3 eggs each. This was a huge risk considering I had never tried this before and my baking budget was at stake. This recipe was the biggest undertaking of mine until now and if it failed, then I would not be allowed to order more fancy ingredients the next time. I know, the horror.

By the time the batter was combined, I felt my heart sink. The batter, which was supposed to be smooth with slightly thicker than ribbon consistency, was currently a cookie dough. It looked nothing like the recipe showed. In desperate attempts to loosen it, I added almost a tablespoon of milk until it was like a brownie batter. With trembling fingers, heart filled with despair, I slipped the cake into the oven, praying for the best.

The next day when I taste tested the rested layers I was in utter shock. It was the BEST chocolate cake I had ever baked. The flavours were immaculate. Despite having a recipe to refer to, I had made certain adjustments to suit my liking- I added only half the amount of sugar the recipe called for, so it had the perfect amount of sweetness- almost like dark chocolate, and the texture was like a brownie. Using Dutch alkalized cocoa powder really makes a difference. The cake was relatively tender, but that was inevitable since there was no egg and was not a big deal.

The second step was making the kirsch infused cherry filling. I used canned cherries, (cherries are not readily available in October) and since we did not have Kirschwasser, I used Edelkirsch, a cherry liqueur, that my dad had brought from Germany. Kirschwasser and cherry liqueurs cannot be used interchangeably since Kirschwasser is a brandy, whereas Edelkirsch liqueur has a dark rich colour and is sweet with less alcoholic content. Making the filling was fairly simple, all we needed to do was bring the kirsch, cherry water and sugar to a boil and then add a spoon of corn-starch to thicken the syrup. This was then poured over the cherries and allowed to cool.

Finally the following day, it was time to assemble the cake! I alternated whipped cream, kirsch syrup and cherry filling between 4 layers and covered the entire structure with a thin layer of fresh whipped cream. This was then put into the refrigerator to set, while I prepared the decoration. I still wanted to incorporate the traditional look of the cake but in a classier way, and the simplest way to do this was to replace the chocolate shavings by dark chocolate shards which gold accents on its tip for extra glamour.  

The final product turned out simply stunning and the overall taste was scrumptious.

To those who are still reading and have reached till here, thank you for following me on this journey. Please comment down below what are your thoughts on this German dessert and if you would like to try it out! I will be posting about more cakes and desserts around the world so click that follow button on the top left corner to keep up!

 

Reference links:

For those who might have been inspired to make this themselves, to save you the trouble, here are the recipe and ingredient links that I referred to:-

• Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte
• Canned Cherries 
• Dutch alkalized cocoa powder
• Edelkirsch