Black Forest gateau
- Alice Shields
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Serves 8 - 10
Easy
Cook: 40 mins
Prep 1 hr plus cooling
A star rating of 4.3 out of 5.136 ratingsRate
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Impress your guests with this chocolate and cherry layered cream cake. Our easy Black Forest cake is a revamped version of a retro classic.
Nut-free
Vegetarian
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Alice's tips for the perfect Black Forest gateau:
- This Black Forest gateau recipe uses kirsch, as in the traditional bake. To make it non-alcoholic, you can simply substitute the kirsch with more juice from the tin of cherries
- I always use well-chilled double cream, as it whips more easily and holds its shape better between the layers. Be careful not to overwhip it, though – it should be soft and billowy rather than stiff.
- You can prepare the individual cake layers a day in advance and keep them well wrapped until you are ready to assemble. It makes assembling the gâteau much easier, and is great for getting ahead if you're entertaining.
- I love decorating the gâteau with plenty of chocolate shavings and fresh cherries. Any leftovers should be kept in the fridge, and then you can bring slices to room temperature for 15–20 minutes before serving, to get the best flavour and texture.
Ingredients
Nutrition
Units:
MetricUS
-
175g/6oz salted butter
plus extra for the tin
-
200g/7oz dark chocolate
-
300g/11oz plain flour
-
375g/13oz golden caster sugar
-
25g/1oz cocoa
-
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
-
2 eggs
-
200g/7oz buttermilk
or natural yogurt
To assemble
-
425g can pitted cherries
drained with 2 tbsp juice reserved
-
100g/4oz morello cherry jam
-
4 tbsp/60ml kirsch
(or more juice from the can if you want it to be non-alcoholic)
-
500ml/18fl oz double cream
-
3 tbsp icing sugar
-
1 small punnet fresh cherries
(optional)
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Nutrition: per serving (10)
- kcal859
- fat49g
- saturates3029.9g
- carbs94g
- sugars74g
- fibre3g
- protein7g
- salt0.7g
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Method
-
step 1
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins. Boil the kettle. Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted.
-
step 2
Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free.
-
step 3
Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they’re on different shelves. To test they're done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean.
-
step 4
Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes.
-
step 5
Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl, pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable.
-
step 6
When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. Stack the cakes together. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes. Pile the fresh cherries in and around the cake and serve
Alice Shields
Alice is the Acting Food Editor at Good Food and a London-based food writer, editor and recipe developer. After training as a pastry chef and working in professional kitchens, she developed recipes and food content for leading publications including Jamie magazine and Good Housekeeping. She is particularly passionate about baking bread, is a strong pasta enthusiast and lover of chocolate fondant. See more of Alice's recipes
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A star rating of 4.3 out of 5.136 ratings
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