Hey Nathalie here! Today we're making a
gluten-free Black Forest Cake that will not only outshines its glutinous cousins but
will fool anyone to think it's the real deal. The Black Forest Cake is probably the cake
which inspired me to get into baking as a child. I could have cherries, dark chocolate
and certainly my favorite, whipped cream, and you could get your first taste of liquor in
form of a cake. The Black Forest Cake combines all those different sensations flavors and textures
into one perfect bite.
It is definitely the most efficient way to consume all those flavors
and probably the best german inventions besides the diesel engine, the electric microscope or
contact lenses. I can't show you how to make electronic microscope but I can show you how to
make a Black Forest Cake. So let's get started since the Black Forest Cake has a few steps, it's
normally better to make it over one or two days. On the first day I normally make the cake
bottom the sponge cake, and the cherry filling and since it's a bit more difficult to make
the cake bottom and the chocolate sponge cakes I'm going to show that separately in an upcoming
video. For the filling you want to use 350 or 400 grams which is about three quarters of a pound of
dark cherries or morello cherries. You can often buy them in a jar or you can buy them frozen or
you can even use fresh ones. Strain the cherries from any extra liquid and preserve it for the
next step, and place the cherries into a dry bowl. Measure 60 milliliters which is about a quarter
cup of cherry juice and pour it in a pot and add 60 gram which is about a quarter
cup of sugar to the cherry juice and you want to sprinkle one package of gelatin which is
about 10 grams onto the top of the cherry juice. Now set it aside and wait for the cherry juice to
be absorbed by the gelatin which may take three to five minutes.
You will see how the gelatin
changes from a very opaque to a translucent color. Now you want to heat up the gelatin and the cherry
juice on a very low heat until all the gelatin granules are dissolved. If you are stirring with
a spatula you can actually feel how the texture of the gelatin is going to change when the gelatin is
dissolved. You want to add about three quarter cup or 150 milliliters of cherry juice.
You want to
continue heating up the cherry juice with the gelatin until you reach almost a boiling point.
Just make sure you don't reach the boiling point because that is when you destroy the gelatin.
Remove the cherry juice the gelatin from the stove and pour it over the cherries. Now you want to
add two tablespoons of Kirschwasser or brandy and some places prefer dark rum
and the grated peel of one lemon. Give it one more good stir and let the cherry
juice and the gelatin solidify in the fridge for 4-5 hours.
On the second day when the cherry
filling has solidified and this chocolate sponge cake and the cake bottoms have cooled down,
I'm gonna start assembling the cake. It is much easier to assemble the Black Forest Cake
if you got a basic plastic turntable. I like to place a silicon mat on the turntable to make
sure the cake rounds doesn't slide around. I spread about one teaspoon of honey or jam on
the top of the cake round before I place the cake button.
That again prevents the cake bottom
to slide around. Now I add one teaspoon of honey or jam on the top of the cake button to make sure
the cake doesn't slide around, and now I have to slice the cake into three equal layers which is
a bit tricky if you have never done this before. The easiest way is with a long sharp knife. You
want to score the edges first and then slowly while you rotate the cake keep on cutting deeper
into the cake until you can take the layers apart. I'm going to put two of the cake layers aside and
start scooping and spreading the cherry filling onto the first cake layer.
I'm going to
try to keep the cherry filling layer not thicker than two centimeters or three quarters
of an inch. I'm going to place now the second chocolate sponge cake layer on the top of the
cherries and slightly press down with my hand making sure the cake is relatively level. I
like my cake to have a kick so I'm gonna add two tablespoons of Kirschwasser or brandy on the top
of the second cake layer, but it's not necessary. Now to the tricky bit I have to make the gelatin
to stabilize the whipped cream. If you don't stabilize the heavy cream you might end up with
the leaning tower of pisa. To get started with the gelatin you want to pour about half a cup of water
into a pot add 50 gram of sugar which is about one quarter cup. Now I'm going to follow the same
steps as I did with the cherry juice. I'm going to sprinkle one package of gelatin over the water,
let the water completely be absorbed and slowly heat up the gelatin until all the granules are
dissolved.
I'm gonna take the pot off the stove and let the gelatin reach room temperature, that
might take 10,15, 20 minutes depending on how warm. It is this is an important step though. So you
don't want to rush it at this point. You want to add around 50 milliliter or a quarter cup of
cold heavy cream to the gelatin to even lower the temperature. I wanted the gelatin to be almost
the same temperature as the heavy whipping cream. I'm measuring the remaining heavy whipping cream
to make sure I have 700 milliliters which is about three cups and whip it until it reached a
soft peak that is normally when the heavy cream already can hold a shape but is not yet stiff. At
that point I add the gelatin to the heavy whipping cream and continue whipping the cream until it's
stiff.
I'm gonna scoop now some of the heavy cream onto the top of the second cake layer and
evenly spread it until it's about one centimetre or half an inch thick. I'm going to place now the
third cake layer on the top of the heavy cream. I'm gonna cover now all the sides of the cake with
the heavy cream. I'm gonna make sure it's a thin layer though because what I'm doing is really just
a crumb layer. The crumb layer is really sort of a glue making sure that everything stays inside the
cake. I normally put the cake at this point for 10 to 20 minutes into the freezer to make sure that
the heavy cream is slightly frozen. That is sort of a trick I learned to make sure that my Black
Forest Cake looks really nice and professional. I'm going to put your cake back onto the turntable
and add to all sides more heavy whipped cream with a spatula. I make sure that I get all the
sides nice and smooth with the power of a cake scrape.
I'm gonna make the edges look really
nice and professional with the cake spatula. I'm gonna square away the top of the cake. For
the decoration I'm gonna pipe a few rosettes on the top of the cake and sprinkle with a
mesh a little bit of cocoa butter on the top. Each rosettes gets a candy cherry for
the final touch. I'm going to shave some chocolate with a potato peeler and decorate
the rim of the cake with the chocolate shavings. I'm going to put a little bit of the shavings
on the cake spatula and carefully press that against the rim and here's your gluten-free Black
Forest Cake where nobody ever would think of that this could be gluten-free! I have the ingredients
the amount and where you can buy them down in the video description.
I hope you enjoyed learning
how to make a gluten-free Black Forest Cake and if you did please subscribe to my channel.
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