Black Forest Cake- Using Simple Chocolate Cake

This delicious simple chocolate cake turned into a glorious tall Black Forest dessert is my Father-In-Law’s favourite Birthday cake every year. This is one of my favourite cake recipes to make. Although there are several steps, they seem easy to accomplish and tasty along the way. Join me as me make this tall scrumptious chocolate cake into something spectacular.

Feeds 10 adults.

This is a four layer 6 inch cake. If you prefer a larger cake, you can use 9 inch cake pans instead.

1. Please Note the cake contains no butter or eggs.

Chocolate Cake Ingredients:

1. 3 cups Flour
2. 2 cups Sugar
3. 6 TBSP Cocoa
4. 2 tsp Baking soda
5. 1 tsp Salt (I prefer to use Kosher salt, but feel free to use your preference)
6. 12 TBSP Vegetable/ Canola Oil
7. 2 tsp Vanilla
8. 2 TBSP White Vinegar
9. 1 cups Cold Water

Cherry Filling Ingredients:

1. 20 oz Sour Cherries
2. 1 cup Sugar
3. 1/4 cup Corn starch
4. 1 tsp Vanilla

Ingredients for Whip Cream and Shaved Chocolate:

1. 3 cups Heavy whipping cream (35%)
2. 1/3 cup Icing sugar
3. Dark chocolate

Tools needed to make the cake:

1. Large mixing bowl
2. Medium bowl
3. 1 cup measure
4. 2 cup glass measure
5. 1 TBSP
6. 1 tsp
7. Whisk
8. Spatula
9. 4X 6 inch cake pans or 2 X 9 inch cake pans
10. Kitchen scale
11. Toothpicks

Tools needed to make the Cherry Filling:

1. Medium to Large sized strainer
2. Medium sized pot
3. Medium glass bowl
4. Small glass bowl
5. 1 cup glass measure
6. Spatula
7. 1 cup measure
8. 1/4 cup measure
9. 1 tsp
10. Spatula

Tools needed to make the whip cream and shaved chocolate:

1. Stand mixture
2. Large metal bowl
3. Stand mixture attachment for whipping cream
4. 4 cup glass measure
5. 1/3 cup
6. Spatula
7. Icing bag
8. Icing tip for decorating
9. Large serrated knife
10. Small pairing knife
11. Cutting board
12. Plate to display cake
13. 4 Wooden skewers
14. Scissors

For this step you will need:

1. 4X 6 inch cake pans or 2X 9 inch cake pans
2. Butter or Margarine
3. Cocoa

Preparing your pans are a very important step to avoid your cake from sticking.

I prefer to dust my pans instead of using parchment paper and cooking spray. I find, dusting to have better results.

For this recipe I chose to make a mini 6 inch sized cake versus the traditional 9 inch. If you prefer to use the larger pans, you will only need to dust two 9 inch pans.

1. Using either butter or margarine lightly coat all surfaces of the inside of the cake pan. Try to avoid leaving large clumps of butter/margarine.
2. Using a little bit of cocoa, shake it around your pan until the cocoa covers all sides and bottom.
3. Tip your excess cocoa into your next empty cake pan. Turn the pan upside down and tap the bottom of your pan with your hand, getting rid of the excess cocoa.
4. Repeat this process until all of your pans all dusted.
5. For your final pan, either use a sink or a garbage bin, tip your cocoa covered pan upside down and tap the bottom of your pan with your hand getting rid of the excess cocoa.
6. Once your pans are dusted, they are ready for the chocolate cake mixture.

For this step you will need the following ingredients :

1. 3 cups Flour
2. 2 cups Sugar
3. 6 TBSP Cocoa
4. 2 tsp Baking Soda
5. 2 tsp Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add all of the dry ingredients together.
3. Using a whisk, blend together.
4. When mixed thoroughly, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
5. Set aside.

For this step you will need the following ingredients:

1. 6 TBSP Vegetable/Canola Oil
2. 2 tsp Vanilla
3. 2 TBSP White Vinegar
4. 2 cups Cold Water

1. Using a medium glass bowl, add all of the wet ingredients together.
2. Using a whisk, mix the wet ingredients together to create air/ bubbles into the mixture.
3. This will take about 1 minute.

1. Get your bowl of dry ingredients.
2. Carefully pour the wet ingredients into the middle of the center of the well .
3. Using a large wooden spoon, start from the outside of the mixture and go towards the center of the chocolates cake; folding the ingredients over.
4. Instead of mixing, fold the ingredients to ensure you keep the air into the mixture.
5. Once all the flour and cocoa is folded in, switch your utensil to a metal whisk.
6. Using the whisk, mix the cake mixture to ensure you get all the lumps out.
7. By using a metal whisk you are ensuring to keep all the air/bubbles in to the cake mixture. We would not achieve this if we continued with the wooden spoon.

For this step you will need the following:

1. Chocolate Cake mixture
2. Pre paired cake pans- 4 X 6 inch or 2 X 9 inch
3. Kitchen scale
4. Spatula
5. Pre heated oven

1. To ensure that all the cake pans bake evenly, I weigh my pans.
2. To make sure you are just weighing the cake batter and not the pan, you will need to tar your kitchen scale.
3. Place you cake pan onto your kitchen scale.
4. Beside the On/ Off button, there should be the tare button.
5. Press your tare button until it goes to zero.
6. If you are using the 6 inch pans, you will need; 396 grams or 14 oz in each pan.
7. For 9 inch pans, you will need 792 grams or 28 oz.
8. Pour the cake batter into the pre paired pans until you reach the desired weight.
9. Place your cake pans into your pre heated oven. Ensure that your pans are not touching or close together to allow the warm heat to move around the pans evenly.
10. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes depending on your oven. My four cakes baked for 37 minutes.

You will need the following tools for this step :

1. Oven Mitts
2. Toothpicks
3. Oven Racks
4. Cutting Board
5. Large Serrated Knife
6. Container

1. Once your cakes are done baking, remove them from the oven using oven mitts.
2. Using a toothpick, place the toothpick in the center of the cake.
3. If the toothpick comes out clean, free from crumbs - it is fully baked.
4. Remove the cakes from the oven, placing them on the cooling racks to cool.
5. Allow the cakes to cool 3-4 minutes before removing the cake pan.
6. Once all the cakes are out of the cake pans, flip the cakes back over to the front.
7. Allow the cakes to cool completely or overnight.
8. Once cooled, get a cutting board and large serrated knife.
9. Using one cake at a time, place the cake on its side and use the serrated knife to cut the crown off (see picture).
10. Repeat last step for the remaining cake.

Items you will need for the next step:

1. 20oz Pitted Sour Cherries
2. 1 cup White Sugar
3. 1/4 cup Cornstarch
4. 1 tsp Vanilla
5. Large Strainer
6. Large Glass Bowl
7. Small Glass Bowl
8. Large Pot
9. 1cup Glass Measure
10. 1tsp
11. Spatula

1. Using the large strainer, drain the cherry liquid into the small glass bowl.
2. Reserve1/2 cup of cherry juice .
3. Together, pour the cherries, reserved juice, sugar and cornstarch into the large pot.
4. Turning the heat to Medium low, stir constantly with a spatula until thickened.
5. This step will take about 10 minutes.
6. Once your cherry mixture is thickened, add the vanilla- stir.
7. Allow the mixture to cool completely either on the counter or in the fridge.

Items you will need for this step :

1. 3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream (35%)
2. 1/3 cup Icing Sugar
3. 4 cup glass measure or a 2 cup glass measure
4. Large Metal bowl
5. Stand mixer
6. Stand mixer attachment for whipping cream
7. Spatula
8. Icing bag
9. Decorative icing tip
10. Large drinking glass

1. Chill the metal bowl either in your freezer, outside or in your garage (if you live in a colder country such as Canada in the winter).
2. Add all the ingredients to the cold bowl.
3. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. * You need to watch this step, if you walk away and leave the whipping cream too long, it may turn into butter which is NOT want you want.
4. Choose a decorative icing tip. Ensure the tip has a large nose.
5. Place the tip inside the icing bag, mark a line where you need to cut using your finger nail.
6. Once cut, place the tip inside the bag and push all the way to the bottom.
7. Using a spatula, place some whip cream inside the bag.
8. Once filled to the desired level, push the cream down to get the air out.
9. Twist the top to prevent the whipping cream to come out from the top.
10. When you are not using the whipping cream, place standing up in the large glass.

Items you will need for this step:

1. Cake Stand
2. Cool Chocolate Cake
3. Whipped Whipping Cream
4. Icing bag with Decorative Tip
5. 2 X Spoons
6. Cooled Cherry Mixture
7. 4 Wooden Skewers
8. Scissors

Read all steps before beginning!

1. My glass cake stand has a metal button in the center of the plate. Due to this, I need to place parchment paper down, However, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS STEP.
2. In order for the cake to stay in place you need to place some whip cream onto the center of the cake stand.
3. Place one round chocolate cake on top of the whip cream, crumb side up.
4. With a large spoon, place some whip cream around the cake; about 1/2 inch thick.
5. With a large clean spoon, place some cherry mixture onto the whipping cream.
6. Ensure, the cherry mixture does not go close to the sides.
7. Using your full icing bag, pipe a circle around the top edge of the cake.
8. Place another round chocolate cake on top and lightly press down.
9. Repeat steps 4 - 8
10. ONCE YOU ADD THE THRID CAKE LAYER, ADD WHIP CREAM THEN STOP !
11. To ensure that the four layer cake will not fall over, you need to stabilize it with wooden skewers.
12. Holding the four skewers beside the cake, use your thumb to measure the top edge of the third cake layer.
13. Cut off the excess and discard.
14. Place the wooden skewers into the cake carefully- see photo as reference.
15. Place the last layer of cake on top.
16. Do steps 4 - 7
17. Using your piping bag, make 5 small hills around the outside of the cake. These are for cherries to sit on.
18. There will be a gap at the bottom of the cake and the cake stand. To hide that, we are going to use whipping cream.
19. Using the decorative tip, make stars /flowers all away around your cake.

1. Please note, if you are only doing the 2 layer 9 inch cake; you do not need wooden supports. Do steps 2 through 8 twice until you get to the top layer. Then follow steps 16 - 18.

For this step you will need:

1. Marciano Cherries
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Small Pairing Knife

1. Remove five Marciano cherries from their container and ensure they are dry.
2. You may need to pat them on some paper towel (kitchen roll).
3. Place them on top of the five whipping cream hills you made in the previous steps.
4. Using your small pairing knife, lay it flat on one end of the chocolate, and start to shave in one direction.
5. Staring at the bottom of the cake, go all away around.
6. Repeat in the middle and on top of the cake until desired level of chocolate shavings are on the cake.

Enjoy this scrumptious dessert for a special occasion or for that extra long weekend. No matter when you make this Simple Chocolate Cake into something special. It will be Delicious!