Black Forest Cake simplified.
Waow!That was a long break from blogging for me! I can use work, India trip, laziness as excuses for this hiatus. ;) But now, summer is here, am done with shifting to a new place and the birthday season is here! All this inspired me to increase my recipe collection at iDhaba!
In the recent years, I have been exposed to a massive variety of desserts. Though I don't have a sweet tooth, these gorgeous looking delicacies you find scattered in cafes and bakeries tempt me to try them. In spite of this, I badly miss the fresh cream cakes you find in India. The Indian black forest and fresh cream pineapple cakes are sooooo YUMMY - Light and fluffy with the right amount of sweetness (as opposed to some pastries with unbearable density of sugar). Bangaloreans need just one name to relate to this - Sweet chariot! :) IMHO, this bakery chain dishes out the best of these heavenly fresh cream cakes.
Here is my humble attempt to recreate that magical cake. The expert bakers/ dessert champs out there might find this version of my cake unacceptable! I use the store bought cake mix. And pretty much all I do is assemble the cake. I made this cake 3 times during the last 3 months and I must say, everyone absolutely loved it!! Looks fab, tastes AMAZING and hey, for the effort you put in, its magically good! Made this for my hubby's birthday last week and simply put, he was elated. :) Try it, and you'll know what I'm talking about! :)
Needless to say, if you have more time and skills, you could make your own chocolate cake and go from there. :D
What you need:
Chocolate cake mix - I got Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix. - 1 pack. Tip: Look for mixes that say extra moist cake.
Eggs + water + oil/butter as per the cake mix instructions.
All purpose whipping cream
Fresh strawberries - chopped in small pieces
Chocolate bar - grated
Vanilla essence
Confectioners sugar
Any other decoration for cake as desired - nuts, fruits, chocolate chips etc.
Procedure:
1) Bake the cake by exactly following the instructions on the pack. Use 2 8-inch pans so you end up with 2 cakes for the layering. Let the cakes cool down.
2) Mix whipping cream with vanilla essence and confectioners sugar. The proportions really depend on how sweet you want the cream to be. I added about 2 spoons sugar and 2 drops of essence for about 1 cup of whipping cream.
3) Beat this mixture with a hand blender till its fluffy and stiff peaks form.
To put the cake together :
1) Place one cake with flat side up on a tray/large plate. (If the cake has a substantial dome shape rise, cut some off to get a flat even surface).
2) Coat the flat surface completely with about 1 cm thick layer of the whipped cream icing.
3) Evenly distribute the chopped strawberries on this icing.
4) Now put the other cake on top - flat surface on the icing.
5) With the remaining icing, completely coat the entire cake.
6) Decorate the cake with chocolate shavings.
Use your creativity to decorate this further as you like it.
Chill for a couple of hours and then serve! :)
I saw a lot of recipes which suggested using sugar syrup or some juice to moisten the cake. I didn't use any.
