Black Forest Cake

Prep Time: 1hr
Refrigerate Time: 4hrs
Bake Time: 30min
Total Time: 5hr 30min
Yield: 6-8 Servings

Ingredients

For Chocolate Cake

1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Tspn Baking Powder
Pinch of Baking Soda
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tspn Vanilla Extract
1/8 Tspn Salt

For Sugar Syrup

1/3 Cup Water
1/3 Cup Sugar

For Whipped Cream Frosting

1 1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream, cold (you can also use heavy cream)
1/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

For Filling & Decoration

3/4 Cup Pitted Sour Cherries or Frozen Cherries or Canned Cherries, drained & chopped
4 Pitted Sour Cherries, drained
1 Cup Shaved or Grated Milk or Dark Chocolate

Directions

For Sugar Syrup

• For sugar syrup, boil water in a sauce pan on medium flame & then add sugar. Simmer until sugar dissolves completely & turn off the flame. Keep aside & allow it to cool at room temperature.

For Chocolate Cake

• Preheat oven to 375F(190.5C).
• Grease a 9-inch glass baking pan.
• In a mixing bowl, sift the dry ingredients together & keep aside.
• With an electric mixer on high; beat powdered sugar, eggs, oil & vanilla extract in another mixing bowl for one minute to thicken.

• On low speed add dry ingredients but do not over-mix & pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

• Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove the pan from oven, allow it to cool at room temperature & run a knife around the edges to loosen cake. Transfer the cake to a plate & cut it into two equal halves. Slice each half into 2 separate layers i.e. total 4 cake layers & keep aside.

For Whipped Cream Frosting

• In a large bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar with a hand mixer on high speed until it forms soft peaks & keep aside. 

• Transfer 3/4 cup of whipped cream frosting to a pastry bag with a large flower tip (i filled zip lock bag with frosting & using scissors made a cut at the tip when ready to use) & refrigerate until ready to use.

For Assembling Black Forest Cake

• Place 3 slices of cake on a plate & brush 2 tablespoons of sugar syrup on each slice. Cover top of each slice with thick layer of whipped cream frosting & top with 1/4th cup of chopped sour cherries. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of grated or shaved chocolate on each layer. 

• Place each layer of frosted cake on top of each other & finally cover with fourth cake layer (no need to soak this layer in sugar syrup). 

• Frost the cake on sides & top. Cover sides & top of the cake with grated or shaved chocolate leaving 1-inch edges on top. Pipe rounds of frosting using pastry bag around the top of the cake & sprinkle some more grated chocolate. Place 4 pitted sour cherries on four corners.

• Refrigerate cake for 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Note: Stays fresh for 4 days when refrigerated.