Monday, November 3, 2008

Black Forest Gateaux

P1260918a
Updated black forest gateaux

FIL was celebrating his 80th birthday and Lorrine of Ganache, who makes the Most Delicious Green Tea Cake (no other name for it, Lorrine), was away for the weekend so she couldn't take my order. In-laws requested a black forest cake, something that went out in the 80s.

I decided to update the classic black forest cake now that cream rosettes and trimmings around cakes are considered dated. I wanted a glossy shiny finish to the cake, but was afraid to try new chocolate icing recipes because I find chocolate temperamental to work with. Okay, the truth is I haven't much experience with working with chocolate. I couldn't even make chocolate curls, upto that point. After making this cake, I not only can make choc curls but choc fans too. And it's so easy. Just buy a flat block of choc converture and slice a thin layer with a cheese slicer, then gather one side to make a fan. Freeze it quickly before it melts.

In the end, I stuck with chocolate ganache. The sides of my cake were not level, so ganache of pouring consistency would just show up the uneveness. I chilled the ganache until it was firm and then whipped it for a stiffer anf fluffier frosting. However, the color of the ganache turned from dark brown to a medium brown but that was okay. For the top of the cake, I preferred a shiny look so I added some butter to the hot ganache and when it cooled, poured it over the top of the cake. It still wasn't as shiny as I wanted. Any suggestions?

The cake was a huge hit at the dinner. I was embarassed at myself for kicking up a fuss about them wanting such a dated cake (I wanted a green tea or opera cake) but I have to eat my words: classics never go out of style because they are just too good. The cake took me nearly a whole day to make because the first chocolate sponge I made was a disaster--the bolt fixing the whisk attachment on my 20 year-old Kenwood Major came loose and I had to whisk the 12 egg whites by hand, which was impossible. I am a person who finds it hard to even switch to Astro so fixing the bolt was not an option. The cake came out flat and heavy. I called a friend who's handy with everything and he fixed the machine in time for me to bake another sponge. Seems like everytime I bake, some dramatic incident happens.

The recipe below was from Mrs (Fat) Liew (there was another teacher, 'Thin Liew'), the most popular cake baking teacher in KK years ago. I made 1 1/2 recipe and there was enough to generously feed 24 people.

P1270028
The choc sponge was very light and moist, and not too sweet.

Black Forest Gateaux
'A' Ingredients:
8 oz Softasilk flour (or cake flour)
1 T double action baking powder
4 T cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
3 oz caster sugar
4 oz corn oil
8 large egg yolks
6 oz water/milk
1 T choc emulco (optional)

'B' Ingredients:
8 large egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
3 oz sugar

Icing/Frosting:
Fresh cream (dairy or veg-based)
choc ganache (optional)
choc shavings or curls
1 large can black cherries
maraschino cherries (red cherries with stems)
3 T Bols Kirsch ( a cherry liquor, available in cake shops)

1. Preheat oven at 170 C. Get a 10" or 11" round cake tin. No need to grease. Sift cake flour and baking powder together.

2. Mix 'A' ingredients together with a hand whisk until smooth.

3. Beat 'B' ingredients with an electric mixer (best results if you use a stand mixer) until whites are stiff.

4. Pour 'A' into 'B' and mix well quickly (I was taught to use my hand to mix) and pour into the cake tin. Bake 1 hour. Test with a wooden skewer--if skewer comes out clean, cake is done. Cool by turning cake upside down over a cake board so that it doesn't sit on its weight.

5. Slice cooled cake into 3 layers. Put one layer on the cake board, sprinkle with 1 T Bols Kirsch and another T of the chery syrup. Spread whipped cream over the cake and scatter black cherries over it. Continue layering the cake until all 3 layers are assembled.

6. Now you can choose to cover the entire cake with whipped cream or choc ganache. Traditionally, black forest gateaux is covered with whipped cream, decorated with choc shavings and cream rosettes with maraschino cherries on top.

Choc Ganache
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate, in small bits
1 cup heavy(dairy) cream
1 T rum (optional)

1. Put the choc into a bowl. Heat the cream up over a pot of boiling water until it almost begins to boil. Pour the hot cream into the choc and let sit for 2 minutes.

2. Stir the cream-choc mixture with a spoon. If there are still choc bits, put the whole bowl back into the pot of boiling/hot water and stir until all the choc melts. Let ganache cool.

3. If you want a stiffer fluffier ganache, chill it in the freezer until it is thick and nearly firm, then whisk it with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Note: if you aren't good at making sponges, substitute the cake flour and baking powder with 6 oz Optima flour and 4 oz plain flour, remove all sugar because Optima flour is already blended with all the leavening agents and sugar. When you whisk the egg whites, use only 2 oz instead of 3 oz sugar.


21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Waiting for your update. The Gateaux is looked good. Will try it soon.

Art of Eating said...

Wow ! the cake look super delicious. I love Black Forest.

Thanks for sharing this recipe.

Precious Pea said...

Am impressed!!! Looks really good! Yeah, there are so many fancy cakes out there nowadays but still, black forest is one of the classic best of the best.

Anonymous said...

i love black forest *drools* can't bear to eat the commercialised version cos the real version is so good. wish you were in west malaysia for me to place an order :)

Anonymous said...

wow that is a beauty and i love the way you describe how you put things together.

yeap if you hand mixed the A with the B, the results is beautiful light sponge. interesting you know, if B to A you will get different results.

for shiny finishing, try adding some deco gel or neutral piping jelly to your ganache before pouring.

ganache-ganache said...

heehee I'm back ! you did a good job, love your pics. I think it's a good idea in using chocolate to frost the cake, I dread frosting blackforest with the usual whipped cream as it's not easy covering a dark cake with white frosting & especially when it comes to covering with chocolate curls !!

TeaLady said...

Terri -- your cake is awesome. if this is what setbacks look like then youhave no problem. Fantastic!!!

In answer to your La Choy quiery
La Choy is a brand name of canned and prepackaged Chinese food ingredients. The brand is currently owned by ConAgra Foods.

"La Choy was founded in 1922 by Dr. Ilhan New , later founder of Yuhan Corporation in Korea and Wally Smith, from the University of Michigan.
The longtime commercial jingle included the slogan "LaChoy makes Chinese foods swing American", as seen in this 1960s TV ad."

Trust me it will never be in my house again.

Anonymous said...

Hi Terri! What cake is for this Saturday?! Can only drool , no chance for a slice of any of your cakes! *sigh* K

CK Ng said...

Heay Terri, nice cake and nice pics too, particularly the last pic. It looks like it came out from a DSLR, am I right? Did you get yourself a Nikon D90?

Unknown said...

Hi Terri

Your cake recipes never failed to inspire me to bake. Always wanted to try baking but was put off by the tonnes of work required by it. Superlicious BF you had. I notice one other thing... the fruits in KK seemed to be quite... 'beautiful'? I had hard time gettign really nice ripe and lovely strawberries even here in singapore.

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

anon: try it n tell me but also tell me who u r.

artofeating:u r welcome. i see u r quite new to blogging, so keep up the good work :)

pp: thanx dear

lips: me too, i find all bakery cakes taste really bad, so only home-made ones will do

nee: i think bc B is lighter so is harder to fold into A. oh, thanx 4 d tip, i knew someone out there can teach me smthing, tt's one of the great things about having a food blog.

ganache: i was truly frantic when i sent u d msg. imagine having ur machine break down! i nearly gave up but there was no one i could order a good cake from.

tealady: thanx, but u haven't seen my failed experiments...:) ha, lachoy indeed. i wld def try it if i ever see lachoy canned food, just to be as disgusted as u r.

k: if u tell me who u r, i'll send u a slice. maybe more.

ck: tt made me so happy, yet nervous. happy bc i took those pics using my good old panasonic lumix fz50, which isn't a dslr, nervous bc i don't want hub to see ur comment n say, "Nah, no need to upgrade ur camera!"

tested the nikon d90 but decided i don't want such a heavy n bulky camera. i like the d60 size n weight but most camera reviews didn't give it a good rating. *sigh* can smone pls tell nikon to come up with smthing for ppl like me, not too amateur n not too professional??? smtning like the hugely popular canon 450d but i want a nikon, not a plasticky canon!

johnathan: thanx :)) makes the effort worthwhile..oh no, our selection n grade of fruits wayyy below sg's. i was told our temperate fruits are flown in via sg.u have 'xin li joh yung':D

Rei said...

Your cake looks fabulous! For shiny ganache, besides adding butter you can try this :

6 oz. chocolate
6 oz. heavy cream
1 Tbsp honey or liquid glucose

hope this helps!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Xin Li Joh Yung? Maybe...

Btw, I have been waiting for quite sometime for you to post this particular recipe but it has not make its appearance yet. What's that? I am waiting for you to make some egg tarts! Yeaps.. those wobbly delicious tarts... Can you do a posting on this? I have tried to make it but the fillings were just pathetic! Most of the liquid got absorbed by the pastry. I am looking forward for your egg tarts! ;)

Zurin said...

Wow beautiful cake! Cake looks moist and light and soft like a mousse but its a cake! must keep that recipe. try making choc leaves by using nice veined artificial leaves ..easy..swipe the leaves on one side with melted choc using a butter knife slowly and put in fridge for 5 -7 minutes and then peel off the leaf leaving the choc leaf behind..its easy believe me. n looks like u spent a lifetime doing it

Hungry Hamster said...

Your black forest cakes looks beautiful!! It's making me having a sugar craving at 10:50 pm! haha, I must remind myself not to drop by ur blog late at night to save me from my expanding waistline!

Anonymous said...

Terri, my dear friend ! Are you sure you will send me a slice of your cake if I tell you who I am? Well, here's the address in O..hi..o !!! *sigh* K

Anonymous said...

Wow, that cake looks absolutely delicious! I am very jealous - there is no way I could get something looking that good! Yum!

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

rei: oh, thank u!

zurin: but what type of choc? is it the converture?

johnathan: the egg custard texture is hard to get right, so i nover tried making--sorry. u'll have to keep trying n tell me instead

hungryhamster: who's talking now, ur blog always has all those gorgeous cakes n cookies. 'sides, u are so slim.

K: it's u! *sigh* i miss u...

katie: i AM sure u can do it, just get moving. many times i thought i wouldn't be able to do smthing but then i try n hey it's not so hard afterall.

Anonymous said...

Hi, The cake bakc forest gateaux looks lovely. Hope it tastes the same when I make it :) I wanted to know what is 'emulco'

thanks, S.Rawji

Bharat Kataria said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...