Black Forest Cake

This Black Forest Cake combines rich chocolate cake layers with fresh cherries, cherry liqueur, and a simple whipped cream frosting.

Black Forest Cake was a staple when I was growing up (much to my dismay…read on).

You know, the grocery store kind with the nuclear red maraschino cherries? My mom loooooved that cake and always got it for her birthday, and often at other times throughout the year as well. This was epically disappointing to me.

Why on earth would you ruin a perfectly delicious cake with those sickly sweet, sticky, artificial tasting cherries? Whyyyyy? Needless to say, I ate around them, but they totally tainted the cake and frosting. Sad times.

Now that I think about it, it’s probably been a good 20-25 years since I’ve had that cake.

I’ve talked about my disdain for maraschino cherries before, and that feeling still holds true to this day. I have caved and used them as a garnish because I will admit, they look pretty and just go with certain desserts, but they get plucked right off before eating the cake.

Thing is, I actually love cherries. Real cherries. Fresh cherries. They are one of my favourite summer seasonal fruits. So, I set off to re-create the decades-old Black Forest Cake my way.

I promise you, this is one of the easiest cakes you will make.

It looks fancier than it is, and the chocolate bark was actually dead easy to make. The trickiest part of this cake is making sure you don’t have any lingering cherry pits in your cherries, which totally happened due to a less-than-stellar cherry pitter that broke after about 10 cherries.

Needless to say, it got returned.

So, super easy chocolate cake, a simple whipped cream for frosting, and fresh cherries. That’s really all you need.

In order to keep it traditional, I also made a cherry syrup (using kirsch – cherry liqueur) to brush onto the cake layers.

You can leave this out if you’d like to keep it kid-friendly or use a non-alcoholic cherry syrup.

How to Make Chocolate Bark

The chocolate bark on the side of the cake is much easier to make than it looks. I first saw this on my friend Janette’s Irish Chocolate Cake. She has a video tutorial to show you how to make it, and I basically followed her steps: melt chocolate, spread on parchment, chill, unroll.

The only difference is that I popped mine into the freezer for 20mins instead of the fridge for 30mins because I’m mega impatient.

I actually didn’t think it would work out, to be honest, since it was my first time trying it and all, but it worked great!

I actually thought my pieces were too big/thick and was thisclose to re-melting it and trying it again, but after I placed them on the cake they looked perfect.

You will have to work quickly with this chocolate bark — since the chocolate isn’t tempered, it will melt on contact.

I recommend using food safe latex gloves so that you’re not touching the chocolate directly. It will help a ton. I also popped the chocolate shards back in the fridge/freezer here and there to cool them off — it was a hot day too, so that didn’t help my plight.

At one point I actually had the cake and bark in the fridge and was placing the shards on the cake with the fridge door open (lol).

Desperate times. Is it Fall yet??

I used a vegetable peeler on a block of chocolate to create the chocolate shavings on top, and then used a 1M tip to pipe rosettes out of the whipped cream on top.

Really though, you could skip all the bells and whistles and just do a rustic frosting job with the whipped cream.

If you’re a Black Forest Cake fan, I hope you try this version! And if you’re not, maybe this recipe will convert you.

It is much better than the ones you can get at the grocery store, I promise!

Tips for this Black Forest Cake:

• You can leave the cherry liqueur out (though it is traditional) or use a non-alcoholic version.
• You can use maraschino cherries or use cherry pie filling instead of fresh cherries.
• When making the whipped cream frosting, make sure everything is chilled, as the cream will whip up better. I stick my mixer bowl and whisk in the freezer beforehand to chill them before starting.
• I used this technique from my friend Janette to create the chocolate bark. I recommend wearing food safe latex gloves when handling the bark, as the heat from your hands will melt the chocolate. Work quickly regardless!
• This cake will not keep incredibly long due to the whipped cream. I recommend eating within 1-2 days and storing in the fridge. I do not recommend freezing.
• To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.

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Black Forest Cake

4.91 from 294 votes

This Black Forest Cake combines rich chocolate cake layers with fresh cherries, cherry liqueur, and a simple whipped cream frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 774kcal

Author Olivia

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

Chocolate Cake:

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder sifted
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
• 1 cup hot water or hot coffee
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cherry Liqueur Syrup:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup cherry liqueur

Whipped Cream Frosting:

• 3 cup whipping cream cold
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar sifted

Chocolate Bark:

• 250 g good quality dark chocolate chopped

Assembly:

• 2 1/2 cups cherries pitted and cut in half
• 1 bar dark chocolate for shavings (optional)
• cherries

Instructions

 

Chocolate Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350F, grease two 8" round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.
• Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
• In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour hot water in slowly as not to cook the eggs).
  
• Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.
  
• Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.
  
• Bake for 45 mins or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. 
• Cool 10 minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
  

Cherry Liqueur Syrup:

• Place sugar and water into a small pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 min then remove from heat. Stir in cherry liqueur and allow to cool completely.

Whipped Cream Frosting:

• Whip cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks. Ideally in a cold bowl with a cold whisk.

Chocolate Bark:

• Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in 20 second bursts in the microwave.
• Using a large offset spatula, spread melted chocolate in a thin layer on a large sheet of parchment.
• Roll up from the short side of the parchment. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until firm.
• Unroll to create chocolate bark. 

Assembly:

• Cut each cake layer in half horizontally.
• Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush generously with cherry syrup. 
• Top with approximately 1 cup whipped cream and spread evenly. Top with approximately 1 cup of cherries and gently press them into the whipped cream. Repeat with remaining layers and frost the outside of the cake.
• Decorate with chocolate bark, chocolate shavings, rosettes, and cherries if desired.

Notes

Chocolate Bark tutorial here and here.

Calories: 774kcalCarbohydrates: 84gProtein: 9gFat: 46gSaturated Fat: 29gCholesterol: 116mgSodium: 468mgPotassium: 502mgFiber: 6gSugar: 56gVitamin A: 979IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 119mgIron: 6mg

The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please verify with your favorite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.