A Birthday is incomplete without a cake and for our family we are just not happy with something simple. I made
this cake for my mom’s birthday and it turned out yummy.
Difficulty
level: Medium
(if you know how to bake)
Quantity: Serves
15-20
Prep
time: 60 minutes – Baking time + prep-time and cooling time additional
Can
be served as: Celebration cake or a dessert
Ingredients
– The pic shown is a 2 kg cake; I am providing recipe for a 1 kg cake.
For cake:
250 grams – Butter @ room temperature
250 grams – Refined Flour (Maida)
250 grams – Sugar
1 tbsp - Baking Soda
½ tsp- Cooking Soda
2 tbsp - Instant Coffee powder (I used Nescafe)
4 tbsp – Dark Cocoa powder
5 eggs
1 tbsp - Vanilla extract
¼ cup of Milk
Cooled sugar syrup to moisten the cake after baking
For filling:
Double heavy cream – 100 ml
Icing sugar – as much as sweetness required.
Canned cherries – 1 can
Must have tools:
1 metre clean sewing thread
Wide 1 kg round baking tray
Electric Hand mixer to mix cake
A good convection oven
Large mixing bowl
Parchment paper (Butter paper)
Flour sieve
Clean long knife
Preparation:
Make the cake batter:
Start with powdering the sugar in a blender jar
along with cocoa powder and coffer powder. It must be a fine powder else the cake will be
hard on the outside. Place the butter in the mixing bowl and add the powdered
sugar mixer into it. In the flour sieve throw in the flour, baking soda and
cooking soda. Sieve them all together into the mixing bowl which has butter and
sugar. Add the eggs (both white and yellow), add vanilla extract and milk.
Mix the cake using the electric hand mixer; this
quantity of cake is huge hence use of the electric mixer is inevitable. Mix
well, till all the ingredients have blended well and have no lumps.
Bake the cake:
Pre-heat the oven at 210 Degrees. Rub the baking
tray with some oil or butter so that it’s easy to release the cake after
baking. Line the baking tray with the butter paper, neatly cut to its
measurements. The fat you have rubbed to the tray will help hold the butter
paper intact to the tray. Pour the cake batter into the tray, leaving at least
1 inch space for the cake to rise while baking.
Once the oven is pre-heated, place the tray in the
oven. Don’t let the temperature in the oven decrease else your cake will not
cook in time mentioned below. Let the cake bake in 210 degrees and don’t open
the door of the oven, else the cake will sink in the center.
Once the cake has cooked for 45 mins, take a long
thin skewer and poke in the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, that
means the cake is cooked. If not, cook the cake for another 10 mins. Once the cake is cooked, it must rest for a
while outside the oven so that it can cool. This step is very important. For
the cake to cool down without drying it, take a aluminium foil and cover the
cake gently, so that steam moistens the cake in the process of cooling down.
Preparing the filing:
Pour the double cream in a bowl and add icing sugar
depending on how much sweetness of the filing you need as you need. Whip till
the sugar melts in the cream.
Open the can of cherries, drain the water and de-seed it. Chop de-seeded cherries coarsely.
Layering the cake:
Once the cake has cooled down, it’s time to cut into
layers. Remove the foil; invert the cake on a cake stand. (Any deep tray can be
used as a stand when inverted). Remove
the butter paper from bottom and sides of the cake.
How to cut the cake? I found a video of this
procedure on YouTube that can be helpful.
If you want to avoid this procedure just bake the
layers separately. Divide the batter into half and bake them separately. Also
make sure you bake each layer for 20-30mins only.
Remove the top half by pushing a thin plate in
between both the layers and keep aside to cool. Now pour the sugar syrup on
both the layers so that the cake can become moist. Don’t pour too much else the
cake will become soggy.
Pour half of the cream filing on the bottom layer of
the cake along with the cherries. Place the top layer on the bottom layer and
pour the remaining cream over the top layer spread the cream evenly. Now the
cake is ready; you can decorate it with anything you like; I have used shaved
chocolate here.
Reality
check:
- Cost effective, if you have to serve cake at a people gathering! It will cost you half of what you will spend for a bakery made cake.
- Trust me, even if you are baking this recipe this for the first time, it will not go wrong. People will think you are an expert baker! But please follow the recipe correctly.
- The coffee will give a rich colour and add more flavour to the cocoa powder. People who don’t like coffee will not recognise the flavour; so just go ahead and use it.
- Cake tastes best when chilled.
- You can also use cake whipping cream instead of double cream for the perfect bakery made black forest cake. Just follow the instructions on the package to use the whipping cream. Beware the whipping cream is generally available sweetened, so you don’t have to add icing sugar. Check the package for the details.
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