Recipes

[Mistreatedbycs]

I made this yesterday afternoon and it is a magnificent work of art, my friend called it a "masterpiece".   It took less than 3 hours to make but its the prep work that takes the time.

I used my new pans called "easy layers", it's 4 short cake pans and actually you can make multi flavor or multi colors easily.  The recipe does not call for them but I wanted to try them and I got 4 perfectly even layers!  Made by Wilton.

Recipe comes from Taste of Home Holiday Baking 2021, picked it up from Sam's but I'm sure they have it where magazines are sold.  This year is worth buying a lot of nice easy recipes to make that are WoW factors.

The one is definitely a WoW, one of those cakes that you "buy" vs make but it's easy, just follow the directions.

Black Forest Chocolate Torte

2/3 cup butter, softened

1-3/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1-1/4 cups water

4 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

Chocolate Filling

6 oz German Sweet Chocolate, chopped

3/4 cups butter cubed

1/2 cup sliced almonds toasted

Whipped Cream

3 cups heavy whipping cream

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

1 pkg Knox's Gelatin

3 Tablespoons Water

Topping

1-1/2 cups sliced almonds toasted for sides

1 cup cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 deg.  Line the bottoms of 4 greased 9" round cake pans with parchment paper and grease again.

Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time beating well after each egg.  Beat in water just until blended.

In microwave, melt unsweetened chocolate (about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes) stir.    Recipe calls to stir in vanilla, do not do that, your chocolate will seize up and clump,   Add vanilla to butter sugar egg water mixture,  In another bowl, whisk your flour with the baking soda and powder.    Now, alternately add the flour and chocolate mixture to the bowl, beating after each additon.  (I eyeballed the flour and added in thirds)  So it's flour, chocolate, flour chocolate, flour chocolate.  Divide the batter into your 4 pans and bake 15-20 minutes.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes before turning out on wire racks and peel parchment carefully, let cake cool,

Wait for cakes to cool before proceeding.

For the chocolate filling, melt chocolate in microwave and stir until smooth, add butter and keep stirring until butter blends in with the chocolate. Stir in about 1/2 cup toasted almonds.

For the Whipped Cream, recipe does not call for stablizing the whipped cream but whipping and not stablizing will result in a total mess of the cake.

Small bowl with the 3 T water, sprinkle gelatin over and let sit for a full 5 minutes.  Then put your gelatin in the microwave for about 8 seconds and stir,   I will add a great website for reference to do this at the bottom of this post,

Take your 3 cups of chilled whipping cream and beat about halfway, just until really soft peak appear, add your 2 T sugar, vanilla and add half of gelatin mixture, beat 30 seconds and finish adding your gelatin mixture, beat until fairly stiff peaks appear.  Do not overbeat, you will get butter.

Assemble Cake

Place layer on flat plate.  Spread a third of chocolate mixture, spread about a cup of whipping cream, repeat until you get to top layer, just spread with the chocolate, no whipping cream.

Frost sides with whipping cream and I put a whipping cream border around the top of the cake to encase the cherries.

Take your toasted almond and press into the sides of the cake, there isn't an easy way to do this, just grab small handfuls and slightly press into the sides just so they hold.  If you have small gaps just place one of one, yes it takes time but well worth it.

Spoon pie filling into the center of the cake and your "whipping cream wall border" will hold the cherries on the top of the cake.

Refrigerate.  

Actually it's beautiful!  It's a torte that you expect to buy and not make yourself.  Should last about 3 days with the stablizied whipping cream.

I learned a lot about stablized whipping cream from

Sugar Geek Show website.  She has a wealth of information

on there and many other ways to stablize whipping cream, not just gelatin.  

I did call Taste of Home and notified them that adding vanilla directly into the chocolate seized my chocolate up but I didn't tell them that the cream should be stablized if you want a cake the next day,

Recipe only calls for 2 cups whipping cream but I used 3 cups of heavy whipping cream and didn't have any leftover.

[nana59]

sounds wonderful....but i'd have to take a nap halfway through making it!!  LOL!

[Bhvbum]

Just wow, what a beautiful cake!!  Folks seeking therapy should be forced to make this cake!

[KingstonsMom]

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@nana59 wrote:

sounds wonderful....but i'd have to take a nap halfway through making it!!  LOL!

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@nana59 

.....then another nap after eating some!

[nana59]

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@KingstonsMom wrote:

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@nana59 wrote:

sounds wonderful....but i'd have to take a nap halfway through making it!!  LOL!

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@nana59 

.....then another nap after eating some!

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yup!!

[Harpa]

@Mistreatedbycs 

You shouldn't be posting pictures like that! Some of us are on diets!

Nah, just kidding! It does look fabulous!

Thanks for the suggestions about the vanilla not being added into the chocolate!

[FancyPhillyshopper]

Very gorgeous!!  You could be the main feature in the bakery!

[Mistreatedbycs]

I shared with my neighbors and they loved it...it really is a show stopper.

I took it out of the frig, let it "warm up" for about 15 minutes and then cut it.   It was like a thin candy bar, cake and cream.

I think the toasted almonds really made it!

[Pantsonfire2]

@Mistreatedbycs ...  so glad you explained the chocolate torte ... several months ago I ventured into a lemon cake using lemon curd and whipping cream together.  I was interested in the stabilized whip cream ...  I could never figure out how you could use a whipping cream in the middle of a cake without the cake just absorbing the whipping cream into  the cake.  The lemon curd and lemon whipped cream take a bit to try, and I wound up with a mess in the kitchen, but it was all worthwhile at the first bite. The most difficult job was folding the lemon curd into the whipped cream (you need to whip the cream, then gently folding into the lemon curd).  It is a bit tedious.  BUT I could not figure out how you could not put any filling in the middle of a cake without it just oozing out when you cut it ...  that is when I discovered the "wall" made of icing in the middle of the cake and the whipped lemon cream in the middle of the wall.  Sounds ridiculous but it was perfect with my new discovery.  I used a buttercream icing and again added the lemon curd to the buttercream and it was wonderful.  Making the lemon curd was another small feat by not "cooking" the eggs yet continue to whisk them.  I have NOT tried "gelatin" to stabilize my whipped cream filling.  Do you have any tips on stabilizing cream ??  I would like to try a strawberry whipping cream using a few strawberries instead of lemon zest ...  it was an adventure but your torte looks FABULOUS ...

[Mistreatedbycs]

@Pantsonfire2 

I read all about stabilizing whipping cream from the website

Sugar Geek Show, she has 5 easy variations to stabilize it with

instructions.  I read and re-read all her instructions and make a cheat sheet for all the steps so I wouldn't forget.  Clearly I am not an expert but since I had 3 cups 24 oz of whipping cream and her recipe was for 12 oz, it was an easy double everything she was doing.

Never thought about using vanilla pudding but that will give you a "taste" in the cream so maybe cream puffs but not this cake.

I also remember reading you can use corn starch, powdered milk or cream of tartar but my mom used

a lot of Knox gelatin and that's what I used.  What I didn't know and read from her website that adding a tablespoon of cream to the gelatin mixture helps getting the mixture combined with the cream.

The recipe doesn't call for stabilizing the cream but it is a must or you will have cream ooze out, your cake will be a mess and the next day it will just make the cake wet/soggy and edible.  I am so surprised no one corrected this.

Your chocolate ganache in this cake although applied with a thin layer will become hard like a candy bar and will be difficult to cut though if you try to cut it while its cold, you need to have the cake warm up slightly before you cut it.

I also thought about maybe whipping the chocolate ganache next time instead of spreading it on so it gets hard, a whipped chocolate with a whipping cream might be really good.

The cake isn't that in your face chocolate at all, it's the texture of a typical torte and tastes good as a whole.

Now you mentioned lemon, that would be wonderful with a yellow torte cake, lemon curd, whipping cream and those toasted almonds.  That would be a great cake.  I think I would omit the frosting and use the stablized whipping cream as the frosting similar to this cake.

I also like to add, I used a pastry bag with a star tip filled with the cream to complete the cake, it was so easy just to "circle" the layers once I used a spatula to apply the thin layer of chocolate.