Black Forest Cake

The Barefoot Contessa always tells her viewers to have a fabulous dessert, no matter what they are serving.  Since dessert is usually my favorite part of the meal, I usually follow her advice.

For Thanksgiving I planned to make my pumpkin mascarpone pie and a Black Forest Cake.  I brought some kirschwasser back from my trip to Germany, since it is essential to making a 'real' Black Forest cake.  I planned to use a recipe from Certified Master Pastry Chef Decker, who taught me much of what I know about pastry.

The chocolate chiffon cake was made a frozen ahead of time.  That still left the Swiss buttercream, whipped cream, and cherry filling to make. 



The cake looked great when done.  Four layers of cake, cherry filling, super rich buttercream, all frosted with Chantilly whipped cream. 

 

But, I seemed to end up with way too much buttercream.  I could have made half the recipe.  The whipped cream was just perfect.  But the cherry filling was not quite what I remembered.  Plus, the cold buttercream never reached room temperature for serving until about five hours after it was out of the fridge.

 

So, what had gone wrong?  Was my memory truly shot to hell?  Well, I was now on to planning Christmas dinner and no time to worry about the cake, all of which was eaten.

 

Cherry pie for Christmas due to excess cherries in freezer.  Back to Chef Decker's recipes.  What?  Isn't this cherry pie filling the same thing I used for the Black Forest cake?  Aha!  It is. 

 

I have quite a collection of recipes from the Chef.  I have taken a lot of classes.  And there in the file is the recipe I used dated 2008.  But in an earlier class from 2006 is another recipe.  With a different cherry filling.  And a Swiss buttercream that uses Sweetex.  And kirschwasser added to the whipped cream, not that you need anymore in the cake. 

 

Ahhhh!  This is the recipe I remember.  Why the difference?  Well, the recipe from 2008 is from a class where we prepared the cake ourselves.  He simplified the prep so we could get it done in one night.  The 2006 recipe is from a demonstration class.

 

I actually made the cherry filling from the demo class on Friday.  Just a small amount.  Perfect.  I used the cherries on my oatmeal this morning. 

 

I now have to rewrite the recipe so it is all in one place.  My class notes from the demo have comments all over the margins.  Plus, I know that I can make less buttercream unless I am also making another cake or cupcakes.

 

My fab dessert for Christmas is going to be a dark chocolate mousse cake.  With cherries.  I'm hoping the flavors all work together.  But with lots of food and cookies, my guests likely won't notice if they don't.