Black Forest Cake and Kaffeeklatsch

This long weekend (Australia shares the 3rd October as a public holiday) was a good opportunity to have a traditional German Kaffeeklatsch. I couldn't find out since when this word exist but it means:
gossiping over a cup of coffee. The gossip in this instance doesn't have to be mean it's rather a catching up with friends. Even though Kaffeeklatsch is quite an old tradition in Germany and what is being served depends on the region in Germany it is still very common. Celebrated mostly by the elderly on a Sunday afternoon around 3pm it involves usually a Torte with cream. Germany is quite well known for its many different Torten (at least in Germany) but the Torte that became even popular outside Germany's borders is the Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte or Black Forest Cake.

The cake is named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range in southwestern Germany but rather from the specialty liquor of that region, known as Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser) and distilled from tart cherries. This is the ingredient, with its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic content, that gives the cake its flavour. Cherries, cream, and Kirschwasser were first combined in the form of a dessert in which cooked cherries were served with cream and Kirschwasser, while a cake combining cherries, biscuit and cream (but without Kirschwasser) probably originated in Germany.
Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was first mentioned in writing in 1934. At the time it was particularly associated with Berlin but was also available from high-class confectioners in other German, Austrian, and Swiss cities. In 1949 it took 13th place in a list of best-known German cakes, and since that time Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte has become world-renowned.  Source Wikipedia.

My version of Black Forest Cake.

Our Kaffeeklatsch- German-Aussie Fusion style. Btw, sweet Shiraz from the Hunter Valley goes well

with the cake!

                                 

My recipe for the Black Forest cake:

 For the cake:
serves 6-8

200 g butter
200 g dark chocolate melts
300 g caster sugar
40 g cocoa powder (best to use the Dutch one without extra sugar in it)
300 g plain flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
250 g milk
3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree. Line a 22cm round cake tin with baking paper and set aside.
Combine butter, chocolate and sugar in a medium pan and heat, stirring, in a water bath over low heat until butter and chocolate has melted. Cool.
2. Sieve cocoa over flour and baking powder and mix. Add milk, eggs one after the other and stir until thoroughly combined. Stir through cooled chocolate mixture.
3. Pour chocolate mix into cake tin and bake in the oven for ca. 50 minutes. If cake becomes to dark cover surface with baking paper.

Meanwhile make the cherry compott:
680 g glass sour Morello cherries, pitted in juice
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 tablespoons sugar, depending on the sourness of the cherries
3 teaspoons cornflour, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

1. Heat cherries, juice, spices and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes until sugar dissolves. Using a slotted spoon take out cherries and put aside.
2. Add conflour water to the cherry juice and cook, constantly stirring, for 2 minutes or until the juice thickens. Add cherries and let cool.

To assemble the cake:
Cut cake twice in 3 layers. Whip 300 ml cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar until soft peaks form. Spread 1/3 of the cream on top of the bottom layer of the cake and top with 1/3 of the cooled cherry compott. Continue until you used all of the cream and compott finishing the with chocolate sprinkles on top of the cake.
You can eat the cake right away as I prefer it but it will be easier to cut the cake if it has set a little in the fridge first. Up to you.
I didn't use any Kirsch as we also had kids at the table but if you want to use it soak the cake layers with approx. 2-3 tablespoons before you spread the cream on.
mmmhjoy!