Chocolate Blackforest Cake (My Birthday Cake)

This year I baked myself a blackforest cake. Last year my mum baked me a regular blackforest cake but this year I'm doing a chocolate version.

This is another recipe from Y3K Delicious Cake book. I think I'm hooked on the cake recipes here. They are so good for celebrations!


This recipe is for a 9" pan. The cake turns out tall in an 8" pan.

INGREDIENTS:

Chocolate Chiffon: 

95g vegetable oil
30g cocoa powder
150g dark chocolate, chopped
90ml water / milk
60g superfine flour / cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
95g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Chocolate Mousse Cream:

350g whipping cream
1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
20g cocoa powder
75ml cherry juice
3/4 tsp instant coffee powder
1 large can dark pitted cherries
some grated white chocolate and dark chocolate

METHOD:

Chocolate Chiffon:

1. Heat oil over low fire until hot. Remove from heat and add in cocoa powder and chopped dark chocolate. Stir till chocolate melts. 

2. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda.

3. Add in flour and water into chocolate mixture. Leave aside.

4. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites, caster sugar and cream of tartar till stiff peaks form. Fold in chocolate mixture. Pour batter equally into two 8" pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 40-45 minutes.

Chocolate Mousse Cream:

 1. Dissolve coffee and cocoa powder in hot water. In a mixing bowl, whisk whipping cream and sugar till stiff. Stir in coffee mixture and whisk till well-combined.

Decoration:

 1. Place a layer of cake on a cake board. Spread mousse and top with cherries and spread cream to cover cherries. Place second layer of cake on top. Cover gaps at the sides of cake with cream. Frost the whole cake. Pipe cream around edge of cake and top with cherries. Sprinkle grated chocolate in the centre.

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Be generous with the cherries. I have 16 of them on the cake.

I used a cake ring to bake one of the layers and the cake shrank a bit. I might just get another 8" cake pan.

The cake was a bit hard the next day. It could be because it was a rushed job. I was baking the cake in a hurry because I had an appointment that afternoon. 

I made a mistake in adding the cocoa powder straight to the whipping cream. That caused the cream to be dry. So don't make the same mistake like I did.

Also, I added some cherry liqueur to the cake. It was a bit bitter so I would recommend adding some sugar to the liqueur first.

White chocolate in the centre looks a bit like grated cheddar cheese.

I shall do better next time!

Happy baking! xx