This is my take on a Black Forest Cherry Cake, a delicious Chocolate Cherry Cake that is filled with whipped cream and cherries, frosted with a chocolate pudding frosting, topped with ganache, and gold cherries. It’s so delicious and beautiful!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cake, cherry, chocolate
Prep Time 3 hourshours
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
Chill Time 8 hourshours
Total Time 11 hourshours25 minutesminutes
Servings 10people
Calories 350kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
1 1/2cupsall-purpose flour183 grams
1/3cupunsweetened cocoa powder39 grams
1 1/2tspbaking powder
1tspbaking soda
3/4tspfine sea salt
1/2cupunsalted butterroom temperature 113 grams
1cupsugar200 grams
2large eggs
2tspvanilla extract
2/3cupmilk157 ml
2/3cuphot brewed coffee157 ml, or hot water (read notes*)
Chocolate Pudding Frosting
1/2cupheavy cream120 ml
113gramschopped chocolateor good quality chocolate chips
2 1/4cupspowdered sugar281 grams
3/4cupcocoa powder75 grams
339gramsbutterroom temperature (both salted or unsalted will work)
1/2tbspvanilla extract
Cherry Whipped Cream Filling
3/4cupheavy whipping creamcold (180 ml)
1tbsppowdered sugar
1/2tspvanilla extract
1/2cupchopped cherries
Ganache Drip
113gramschopped chocolate or chocolate chips
1/3cupheavy cream 78 ml
To assemble
1/4cupcherry liqueur
8whole cherries
Edible gold leaf
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
This recipe makes for 4-6” round cakes, or 2-8” round cakes.
Pre-heat the oven to 350Fº.
Butter 4-6″ cake pans and place a parchment paper circle in the bottom of pans. Butter parchment. You can also use spray oil instead. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder, if using it instead of the coffee. Set aside.
Cream the butter at medium-high speed for 1 minute.
Add sugar slowly, cream for another 2 minutes.
Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, scraping the bowl in between and making sure the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one.
Add vanilla extract and mix.
Slowly add milk, mix to combine.
Pour dry ingredients over wet mixture.
Fold with a spatula slowly, until ingredients are just combined.
If you see big clumps of cocoa powder, you can use the whisk to try to gently smooth the batter out.
Once batter is incorporated, pour hot coffee in the bowl. Whisk until combined.
Pour batter evenly onto baking pans.
Bake in pre-heated oven for 15-20 min. After the 12 minute mark, keep checking regularly, because you don’t want to burn your cakes or over bake them. Remove them from the oven once a toothpick comes our clean once inserted in the cake.
Once you remove it from the oven, wait 10 minutes, flip cakes onto a cookie cooling rack and let cakes cool.
Once cool, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. I like to leave my layers in the fridge for quite a bit so they can firm up and make it easier to assemble and decorate the cake.
Chocolate Pudding Frosting
Place the chocolate in a bowl.
Heat the heavy cream until hot to the touch, but don’t let it come to a boil.
Pour the hot heavy cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for 2 minutes.
Stir until the chocolate has melted completely.
Let the mixture cool down until it comes to room temperature, about 72ºF.
While you wait, sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder together. I like to do this to avoid any lumps from forming in the frosting.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter for 1 minute, until creamy. Pour the cooled down chocolate and heavy cream mixture in and cream for 2 minutes until incorporated. Make absolute sure the chocolate isn’t warm, or it will melt the butter.
Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder to the bowl.
Mix on low until combined, raise the speed to medium. Cream until the mixture is fluffy for two minutes.
Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
Cherry Whipped Cream Filling
Place the heavy cream in a bowl. Begin to whip with a mixer on medium or medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, when you notice the peaks are almost stiff, add the powdered sugar. Whip for another one or two minutes until the peaks are stiff. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
Ganache for the drip
Chop the chocolate finely and place it in a bowl. You can also use chocolate chips instead.
Heat the heavy cream until it almost comes to a boil.
Take it off the heat. Pour it over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 1 minute.
Use a whisk to gently mix the heavy cream and chocolate until all the chocolate melts, and the mixture is smooth without any chocolate lumps.
If you still see chocolate lumps in, place the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds.
Don’t mix the ganache too much, because if you add too much air to it, it will have air bubbles when you pour it over the cake.
Let the ganache cool down to room temperature. You are looking for the perfect dripping consistency, not too cooled down, but not warm either. You can test this by pouring one drop on the side of a bowl, or on the back of the cake, and watching how the drop falls. If it takes forever to roll down the side of the bowl/cake, then the ganache might be too hard. In this case, place it in the microwave for JUST a few seconds (literally 2-3 seconds), and stir. Test again. Repeat until the drop of ganache is slowly but effortlessly dripping a few inches down and stopping.
To assemble
Place a cake layer on a cake plate. Trim the excess of the top if necessary to make it flat and even.
Brush about 1 tbsp of cherry liqueur on the cake layer.
Spread some of the Chocolate Pudding Frosting on top, just a thin layer to prevent the whipped cream to be absorbed into the cake.
Then pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the cake layer.
Spoon some Whipped Cream in the middle and top with fresh chopped cherries.
Place another cake layer on top. Repeat the same steps from above until you are done with cake layers.
When you get to the top cake layer, brush it with some of the cherry liqueur.
Frost the cake with a thin layer of the Chocolate Pudding Frosting, to seal the crumbs of cake in, this is called Crumb Coating. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top of the cake, and a bench scraper to smooth the sides of the cake.
Place the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so the crumb coating has a chance to set.
Remove the cake from the fridge.
Spread a thick layer of Chocolate Pudding Frosting on top of the cake and all around it, smoothing it out with a bench scraper and offset spatula to make it nice and smooth.
Place the cake back in the fridge for at least 1 hour before doing the ganache drip on top of the cake. While the cake chills you can make the ganache.
To do the Ganache Drip
Place the room temperature ganache in a piping bag and snip a small tip at the end with scissors.
Pour the ganache around the edges of the top of the cake, letting it drip nicely down the sides. Then pipe some ganache on top of the cake. Use a spatula to spread it and smooth it out. Place the cake back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the ganache to set.
Meanwhile, you can make the cherries
Gold Cherries
Fill up a small bowl with water.
Place a small piece of gold leaf in the water. Then dip the cherry in the water, on top of the gold leaf, which should stick right to the cherry. Use your fingers to press the gold leaf and make it stick to the cherry if it’s not completely adhering.
To finish
Place the remaining Chocolate Pudding Frosting in a piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice. I chose a 1M.
Then pipe some frosting on top of the set ganache.
Place gold cherries on top of the cake.
To serve
Let the cake sit in the fridge overnight before cutting into it, so the flavors can mature and develop.
It’s also a good idea to let the cake sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
Storage
Store this Black Forest Cherry Cake in the Fridge for up to 5 days, covered so it doesn’t dry out.
Notes
Video: I recommend watching my video on YouTube to see exactly how to assemble the cake. PS. in the video I make the ganache for the frosting and the ganache for the drip together, which is why it looks like a large amount, but I've divided the recipe because people will most likely make this in stages, and it will help to make the drip ganache separately in order to easily obtain the best consistency for it.Chocolate cake: feel free to use hot water instead of coffee. You can also add 1 teaspoon of espresso powder to the cake batter if you want to enhance the chocolate flavor, the coffee helps bring out the richness in the chocolate.Cake layers: the layers of the 6″ cake will be thin, and that’s because when you stack them, they can’t be too high, or the cake will be too hard to style and decorate.Cherry liqueur: feel totally free to skip the cherry liqueur. You could also brush the cake with simple syrup, milk, or just leave it plain without brushing it at all.