Black Forest Cake
Make some coffee...
have a cup... but put another cup in the freezer, when you start this recipe.
Turn on the oven... 350.
Get some cake pans.
You can use one oblong 13" rectangle cake pan for this,
or two 9 or 8 " round pans,
heck... grab a big cup cake pan and go to town.
(if you do go for cup cakes... use paper muffin cups... unless you're a masochist... then ... whatever floats yer boat.)
But if you're using round pans to make a layer cake...
do yourself a big fav and get some baking parchment...
it's cheap and makes life a whole lot easier.
If you don't "do" parchment... grease and flower the bottom of the pans... but not the sides!
mix together - dry
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
mix together - wet
1/2 cup of veg oil
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of cold coffee (no really... )
pour the wet and the dry together
Now get a mixer going... you want to really give this a good mix.
It's wet... it's like thick soup when you pour it into the pans.
Don't lose faith... it turns in to a seriously good and moist cake.
Now pour it into your pan, pans or muffin cups.
USE toothpicks to check the middle of this cake...
(if it comes out wet... it's not done)
Single pan should take about 30 - 40 minutes.
8 - 9 in round pans... 25 - 35 minutes
muffin pan... 15 - 20 minutes
I highly recommend this icing for the cake when you make the single big pan cake...
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk...
in a sauce pan and heat, stir, etc...
till it gets to be a nice even brown.
Mix with about 3 cups of icing sugar
and pour over cake in pan.
Black Forest
You need a half a can of cherry pie filling,
a medium size (pint, or half litre) of whipping cream
two tablespoons of icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Whip the whipping cream... add the vanilla before you whip it...
and add the sugar after it starts to thicken...
Put it in the fridge till you're ready to use it!
Having used baking parchment and two 8 inch cake pans....
you now have two round cakes flipped out of the pans onto racks.
(the cake should be cool... doing this with a warm cake... just fucks it up completely.)
Use a steak knife and poke into the side of the cake, pushing to the middle, turn the cake and saw...
saw this thing in half... making two cake flats... then do the other one.
If your cakes turned out as little mountains that puffed up in the middle...like a bunch... then cut that 'bump" off and eat it...
Layer one goes down in the middle of the cake plate or big dinner plate or whatever...
Blob some whip cream on it and use a spatula to spread it around. It doesn't matter if it gets all "crumbly" right... it's getting covered.
Layer two goes on, except flip it so that the "inside" from where you cut the cake in half, is up... it absorbs the cherry juice better...
Spoon on half a can of cherry pie filling.
Layer three !! then a blob of whip cream... spread it around...
Layer four... careful now.... use a "layer" that has the top exposed in the over "up"...
it doesn't get all crumbly when you spread the whip cream.
Spread a blob of whip cream on the top and make it purty...
Same deal all around the edges.
Decorate with semi sweet chocolate rubbed against a cheese grater... sprinkle sprinkle sprinkle...
and then (after the "sprinkles") some blobs of whip cream and some maraschino cherries.
Ta da...