Black Forest Cake - Christmas 2013

This was Black Forest Cake - Christmas dessert 2013.

I didn't decide a dessert for Christmas dinner in a last minute. Since duck, which was going to be our Christmas dinner, always goes well with cherry as well as orange and I was going to make orange sauce for, I wanted to make a kind of dessert with cherry. Black Forest Cake was the first thing in my mind.

This German classic cake consists of three parts: chocolate genoise (light sponge cake), whipped cream, and cherries. It sounded easy. Actually it was easy to make. The most difficult part was to find a right kind of cherry - Morello Cherries in light syrup. In short, I couldn't. But I didn't have time to be shocked. It was the day of December 24th. So I bought a bag of frozen dark sweet cherries and make cherry compote and concentrated the compote juice to make syrup for cake. Kirsch is, for me, the most important flavor for this cake. I added a good amount of Kirsch to both cherry compote and syrup.

 

 

 

I saw tens of pictures of Black Forest Cake to learn the decoration. There are many different ways to decorate and all call themselves as "Black Forest Cake." I made my cake simple but similar to one of traditional styles. I wasn't sure I should cover the side with shredded chocolate. J said no. I appreciated his opinion.

 

It was a lovely cake with light whipped cream and juicy cherries. Kirsch flavor was everywhere! I wouldn't mind of soaking the sponge cake with more syrup, though. After all I was happy with the result. Merry Christmas!