Black Forest Gateau

Fly High

Hi guys,
I've never made a black forest gateau before but I'm going to attempt to tomorrow!
So I was just planning a regular chocolate sponge and I bought tinned black cherries, not these brand but similar:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Tinned_Fruit/John_West_Black_Cherries_in_Syrup_425g.html

Would I use the syrup, perhaps reduce it down a bit for the black forest goo? mmm goo...

Any and all help/advice needed! Thanks!

kerash

Louise~ wrote: »

Hi guys,
I've never made a black forest gateau before but I'm going to attempt to tomorrow!
So I was just planning a regular chocolate sponge and I bought tinned black cherries, not these brand but similar:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Tinned_Fruit/John_West_Black_Cherries_in_Syrup_425g.html

Would I use the syrup, perhaps reduce it down a bit for the black forest goo? mmm goo...

Any and all help/advice needed! Thanks!

I make a chocolate sponge and cut the two cakes into 2 so you have four layers. drain the cherries and hold some back for the top (6 or 12) then mix the remainder with cream.
I boil up the cherry juice with kirsch and spoon that over my sponge before sandwiching it all together, top and spread sides with cream and crush up a flake and sprinkle over the top.

It's better the next day
Om nyom

kerash

Ingredients

5 eggs
6oz caster sugar
2oz Plain Flour
2oz Cocoa Powder
3oz melted butter

Filling

5-6 Tblsp Kirsch
1 Pt Cream
425g Tins of Cherries (hold back 6)
Flake Bar
Juice from 1 tin of Cherries

Method

Preheat oven to 180c, grease and line two sponge cake tins
Beat eggs and sugar for 10 minutes til thick and pale.
Sift over the flour and coco, folding it into the egg and sugar mix gently until thoroughly mixed.
Tickle in the melted butter and fold gently.

Bake for 30 mins, turn out onto wire rack til cool.

Pour the juice from cherries and kirsch into a saucepan and boil rapidly until reduced to half. Leave to cool.

Split each cake into 2 halfs, sprinkle with cherry/kirsch reduction.

Whip the cream and combine 2/3 of the cream with the cherries. Fill the cake and sandwich each layer together.
Use the remainder of the cream to cover the top (and sides if you like - this can be tricky and you might need extra cream!)
Crush the flake and sprinkle over the top, finish off with cherries.


* I like the cakes well soaked with liquid so add more cherry juice if you'd like. You can pipe the cream and make it look pretty if you like, taking care to do the sides and cover the sides with chocolate and use fresh cherries on top.

Fly High

Thanks for replying Kerash!

Sadly i didn't get a chance to see your reply before i had to make it, I ended up going with this sponge http://www.odlums.ie/index.php?page=black-forest-gateau

I boiled the cherry syrup with some icing sugar and thickened it up a bit and then used that because i didn't have any kirsch.



Not very black foresty but a delicious chocolate sponge recipe, I highly recommend it!

Sigma Force

Was going to attempt one of these but can't find any tinned black cherries, one more supermarket to check. Would it work with fresh cherries, if I can get my paws on them?

@ Louise that's one big gateux looks lovely!

kerash

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Was going to attempt one of these but can't find any tinned black cherries, one more supermarket to check. Would it work with fresh cherries, if I can get my paws on them?

@ Louise that's one big gateux looks lovely!

Yep that could work, make a syrupy thing out of them with water and sugar.

Fly High

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Was going to attempt one of these but can't find any tinned black cherries, one more supermarket to check. Would it work with fresh cherries, if I can get my paws on them?

@ Louise that's one big gateux looks lovely!

Thanks very much!! Like I said it wasn't very black foresty but it was damn chocolatey.
I got my tinned cherries in tesco and I saw them in my local supervalu, best of luck! But I would say if you want proper taste of black forest you'll probably need the brandy... The people I baked for were delighted though even without it!

Sigma Force

Found tinned black cherries yay!

My only prob. is the two sandwich tins I have are not the same size really need to get my hands on at least one more.
Should I invest in a bottle of Kirsch (prob. not expensive anyway)?

Some recipes use 3 eggs have another one that uses 6 eggs not sure what to go with. Want it to be as authentic as poss.

Magic Monkey

Regarding the sandwich tins, if one is bigger, place the smaller tin on top of the bigger sponge and cut around it to make two evenly-sized sponges.

The excess cake can be blended into crumbs, and mixed with ground almonds, icing sugar, dessicated coconut (optional), cocoa powder, cherry jam and kirsch and rolled into balls to make something similar to rum balls, but black-foresty. You could use these to decorate the cake, or have them as a snack with coffee.

Kirsch is integral to black forest gateau. Think they sell it in the Celtic Whisky Shop on Dawson St. for cheap enough. Not much is needed anyway. With a cake that's filled with cream, chocolate and booze, you may as well use six eggs

kerash

Oh yeah buy the kirsch it'll last you ages
I love the sound of the black foresty balls! I'd dip them in dark melted chocolate too, om nom

Sigma Force

Loving these ideas, deffo. going to try it and get the Kirsch.

Quick ques. 2 or three layers of cake?

Magic Monkey

Three layers.

kerash

4 :P

Sigma Force

lol I guess the more layers the merrier, hope to have a go this weekend.

looperman1000

im going to give this a go at some stage, is kirsch easy enough to get guys?

olaola

Saw this on Planet Food the other night - looked AMAZIINNNGG!!

http://www.pilotguides.com/tv_shows/planet_food/food_guides/germany/black_forest_gateau.php

Sigma Force

Was looking at the recipe before and I'm a stickler for following exact measurements but it doesn't say in the filling how much cornflour, cinnamon and lemon peel is needed.

Looks like a good recipe though not sure I have the patience to wait 24 hours though but if that's how the origional cake is done might try it.

Magic Monkey

The video for that recipe is here. It says in step 5 of the recipe to add one spoonful (tablespoon) of cornflour, and a pinch of roasted lemon peel powder and cinnamon. He uses a heaped tablespoon of pastry flour as a thickening agent in the video, but cornflour will work just fine.
If in doubt, add slighly less and see how thick it gets once it comes to the boil. If it needs further thickening, make a slurry of 1 tsp cornflour and water and add in. And the technique for making roasted lemon peel powder is here.

And just to mention, the recipe uses Schattenmorellen, which are sour cherries from Prunus cerasus. Black cherries are from Prunus serotina. Luckily, most Polish shops would stock sour cherries.

Sigma Force

Never thought of the Polish shops for the cherries, might use the black ones I got for now though. Kirsch is hard to get here in the back of beyond am going to have to see if I can get some from a hotel bar.

Magic Monkey

Kirsch is hard enough to get. In Dublin, the Celtic Whiskey Shop on Dawson St. are selling it for €36/75cl :eek:

Sigma Force

Hoping I can get my hands on some if not my oul lad can get it wholesale or I can get it in Germany in a couple of weeks. Going to have a go at the recipe anyways this weekend.

Watching the you tube vid. atm (slow computer) I just know the cake would fall apart if I attempted to cut it, I have 3 x 9 inch cake tins would it work if I divided that recipe mixture up into three? Or would the cakes end up flimsy?

Really want to get this right after gathering up all the ingredients (minus the Kirsch).

Magic Monkey

If you make that sponge recipe and double-line two of your 9 x 3" tins it should be fine. Just reduce the baking time to 12-15 mins, then check with a clean skewer; once it comes out clean, they're ready.

You'll get 3-4 cake layers. More than 3 layers are ok, once the heaviest components (i.e. the cherry compote) are on the bottom, it'll be fine. The sponges won't fall apart if they're left for 24 hours to dry. Besides, the kirsch, cherry compote and cream will ensure the cake isn't dry to eat.

Sigma Force

Found Cherry liquor not the Kischwassser but nearest thing I could get.

Recipe is still confusing me though going to make the cake today and it says

6 egg yolks
200g egg..what does it mean by 200g egg?
1 cup sugar
80g sifted flour
20g cocoa powder
35g wheat flour
40 g melted chocolate
greaseproof paper

Then it has 300g of water and 70g Kirsch..what's that in mls?

The recipe says to heat the eggs but is it just heating the egg yolk so or heating the egg yolks and the 200g egg..whatever they mean by 200g egg.

I'm so confusled

Sigma Force

Argh gave it a go and it sunk :-( the egg was not completely cold but cool when I folded in the cocoa but the cocoa got clumpy and I ended up beating too much air out of it so it’s turned into a flat what looks like a big brownie lol. Oh well I might just make some light chocolate sponge cakes instead in the mean time will see how the ‘brownie’ tastes and if it’s ok will just throw chocolate and cream and perhaps a bit of liquor in to flavour it.

Couldn’t get roasted lemon peel so roasted some myself, the smell is lovely must use that in other recipes.

Magic Monkey

Sigma Force wrote: »

Recipe is still confusing me though going to make the cake today and it says

6 egg yolks
200g egg..what does it mean by 200g egg?

200g egg is 200 grams of whole eggs. One large whole egg weighs about 50g (white = 30g, yolk = 18g, shell = 2g), so in this case 200g egg is four whole eggs. Minus the shells

Then it has 300g of water and 70g Kirsch..what's that in mls?

300g water and 70g Kirsch is 300ml and 70ml respectively. But, you can only convert equally from grams to mililitres when you're talking about water, or liquids of a similar density. The saying "A pint's a pound the world around" is applicable only in this case. For example, 500ml of honey does not equate to 500g of honey, rather, it's equal to 690g. This is due to its density. Pastry cooks strive for accuracy, which is why they choose to go by weight rather than by volume. It's more consistent.

The recipe says to heat the eggs but is it just heating the egg yolk so or heating the egg yolks and the 200g egg..whatever they mean by 200g egg.

I'm so confusled

The method is to whisk the egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar in a bowl. If you have a stand mixer, use its metal bowl, otherwise use a regular metal or heatproof bowl.

In the video the chef whisks over direct heat from a ceramic hob, but a safer method is to whisk over a pot of gently simmering water. The idea behind this is to trap air inside the egg whites, creating little bubbles which will expand when heated, creating volume. Whisking over heat gives it a kick-start; the rest of the work is done by your stand mixer or elbow grease, if you're feeling particularly masochistic The reason the mixture lightens in colour is because air is incorporated. So once you see the colour and volume changing, you know you're on the right track.

The recipe looks like it was translated from German, so it can be a bit confusing, but the basic technique is that of a hot-foam sponge. If you are going to try it again and have any more questions, just ask.

Edit: There's a mistake in the recipe. For the sponge, where it says "35g wheat flour", that should be "35g melted butter", as the flour was already added, and there was no quantity specified for the butter. And it looks about 35g from the video.

Your sponge doesn't need to be cold before adding the flour. Just weigh the flour and cocoa in the same bowl, mix them with a whisk, then sift into another bowl. When needed, add them to the egg foam, then using a whisk instead of a spatula, fold the dry ingredients in. The whisk isn't used in this case to incorporate more air, rather that the wires will incorporate the dry particles more effectively than a wide flat spatula. After that, just gently incorporate the melted butter and you should be flying!

kerash

I see aldi have italian cherries in if anyone fancys trying them http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_13929.htm?WT.mc_id=2010-08-27-14-24

Little Alex

This is something that I made quite a while ago and meant to get back around to again ever since. I finally got around to it today.

Instead of Kirsch I used a cherry liqueur that I got in Germany.

I also used a tub of good black cherry jam instead of the tinned cherries. I tried the tinned ones the last time and was disappointed with them. If you get a good quality jam there will even be some whole cherries in it. I added some liqueur, some lime juice to make it tangy-sour - the way I personally like it - and then a spoonful of arrowroot to thicken it back up.

Those ALDI cherries look good too, kerash.

Sigma Force

I haven't braved this again yet but like the idea of the cherry jam.
Going to Germany in a few weeks will def. sample some cakes over there and see if there are any other ingredients I could pick up.

Little Alex

Sigma Force wrote: »

I haven't braved this again yet but like the idea of the cherry jam.
Going to Germany in a few weeks will def. sample some cakes over there and see if there are any other ingredients I could pick up.

Me too!

I guess the main things you could pick up are Kirsch, cherry liqueur and some sort of preserved cherries.

Kirsch AKA Kirschwasser: I have to say that I'm not a fan of these fruit brandies like Kirsch, Obst, palinka, slivovitz, etc. I think they taste like nail varnish remover smells. But then again, booze is so ridiculously cheap in Germany that you can take a risk. A bottle of brand name Kirsch will cost about €10 and no-name stuff about €5. You might even find a 200ml bottle at the tills for about €2.50.

Cherry liqueur: I bought a bottle of "Eckes Edelkirsch" for about €7.

Preserved cherries: I tried canned cherries that I found here, but was disappointed with them. They were mushy, watery and tasteless. the ones I tried were "Sunny Glade", I think. In Germany I got a couple of tubs of cherry jam, from Zentis and Mövenpick. They even had some whole cherries in them and were quite nice!

You can also get all sorts of Dr. Oetker and Schwartau goodies in the baking section! ... just noticed that Schwartau now belongs to Dr. Oetker??? Like the way the also swallowed the Supercook brand. Yes, all their stuff is factory made, but some things like choc chips are just impractical to make yourself.

... does anyone else find fresh cherries actually quite flavourless???