With layers of chocolate cake filled with melt in mouth chocolate whipped cream and homemade cherry compote and frosted with cloud like whipped cream frosting, this cake is both eggless and non alcoholic.
To your warm milk, add the vinegar, stir and let it sit for 5 mins to curdle.
Meanwhile sift together the dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Stir and set aside.
To the now curdled milk add the sugar and whisk well. Whisking continuously add the oil at a constant speed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches. Using the cut and fold method combine until you see no bits of dry flour remaining.
Divide the cake batter equally between 3 pans that has been buttered, floured and pre-lined with a parchment paper.
Bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 35 to 45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow it to sit in the pan itself for another 5 mins then invert on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Step 2 - Sugar Syrup
Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan, until the sugar dissolves completely. No need to boil the syrup.
Step 3 - Chocolate Whipped Cream
In a bowl, whisk together the cream, icing sugar and sifted cocoa powder until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Step 4 - Cherry Compote
In a saucepan, add the pitted cherries, sugar and few drops of lemon juice and cook until the cherries soften, the sugar is all dissolved and the mixture starts bubbling.
At this stage, do a taste test and if you find that it is too sweet squeeze few more drops of lemon juice and if it is too tart add more sugar.
In a separate bowl combine together the cornflour and water to make a slurry. Once you are happy with the taste of the compote add the cornflour slurry and stir continuously until the compote thickens.
Take it out onto a separate bowl and cling wrap in a way that the wrap touches the surface of the compote.
Allow it to cool completely.
Assemble the Cake
Trim the top layer of the cake even if you have got a flat top.
Soak the cake with sugar syrup specially around the corners.
Add one third of the prepared chocolate whipped cream followed by half of cherry compote.
I also sprinkled in some chocolate shavings on top of the cherries (simply grate the chocolate in a grater to make the shavings)
Then place another cake layer and repeat the steps until you reach the very top.
With the remaining one third of the cream do a crumb coating on the cake and let this sit in the fridge for 30 mins.
Step 6 - Chantilly Whipped Cream
After 30 mins, whisk together the whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla bean paste until stiff peaks form.
Use this cream to frost the cake entirely.
Using Wilton 1M tip make border on the top of the cake.
Decorate the cake using chocolate shavings or chocolate barks like I have done today. Decorating the cake is totally up to you.
Video
Notes
This recipe is perfect for 3, 6 inch cake pans or 2; 8 inch cake pans. If you are using any other pan size or you are using just 1 pan instead of 2 or 3 then in that case the baking time would vary accordingly.
It is necessary to pre-heat the oven every single time you use it for baking. Please note that be it cake batter or bread dough it needs to enter the hot oven for the leavening agents to work properly.
Do not over boil the sugar syrup and thicken it, you want it to be thinner consistency so that the cake can soak it well.
Use pitted cherries to make the compote so that you have a smooth compote without seeds in them.
Each batch of cherries are different even if you use them from one single packaging as each cherry would be hand picked at a different stage of ripening. So it is always advisable to taste test the compote to adjust the sweetness or tartness accordingly as mentioned in the post.
Wrapping the cling wrap over the compote in a way that it touches the surface of the compote prevents the formation of skin on top.
In my bakery school we used two types of cherries - sweet barkers cherry filling and tart morello cherries. I have adjusted the recipe to what ingredients are easily available in the local grocery store.
You can skip the chocolate whipped cream frosting and instead use the chantilly cream to both fill and frost the cake if you like.
Resting the cake after the crumb coating stage ensures that the cream sets properly.
Black Forest Cake is known for its light, smooth and air like frosting and that is the reason I have not made by stablized whipped cream frosting here as that is bit heavier comparatively. You can read this blog post to understand more about stabilized whipped cream frosting.
If you are using a non dairy based whipping cream which is already sweetened then you can consider skipping the icing sugar mentioned in the recipe.
While the cake is baking, prepare your sugar syrup and cherry compote.
Right before assembling the cake prepare the chocolate whipped cream.
After 30 mins of crumb coating prepare the chantilly cream needed for the final frosting and then use it to frost and decorate the cake.
You can also consider making the cake base, sugar syrup and cherry compote the night before or even 2-3 days ahead of time and then assemble everything at the day of the party. Always just make the whipped cream fresh when needed.How to make Alcoholic version?At step 2, along with the sugar and water add 50ml Kirsch Liqueur and heat until the sugar dissolves.Please note that heating the liquid would evaporate the alcoholic content and what you will be left out is just the flavour.If you want a strong alcoholic flavour and content:
Do not allow the alcohol to boil too long or
Once the syrup is ready add the alcohol after that, mix and use.