Black Forest Gateau / black forest cake

I wish all my blogger friends a very very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR 2010..I know...I know..I am wishing very late, but I was very busy for the past 1 week and so, this is my first post of 2010.....Black forest cake..yummmm...it reminds me of my childhood days in India...it was my favourite cake for years, then one day when I came to know that rum/brandy is added to the black forest cake, I stopped buying it from the bakeries, because we don't consume alcoholic drinks or anything with alcoholic drinks. But I always missed eating my fav fav cake :( And I never knew anything about baking then. I came across this recipe which one of my friend had . And I baked my favourite cake at home, without any rum/ brandy and YES, black forest cake is the first cake I learned to bake or should I say this is the only cake I know to bake :) I baked this cake again few weeks back after a long long time (after coming to UK). So, here goes the recipe for my favourite black forest cake...

BLACK FOREST GATEAU / BLACK FOREST CAKE

Ingredients :
For the cake:
1 3/4 cups flour,
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder,
1 1/2 cup of sugar,
6 eggs,
1 tsp of baking powder,
1 tsp of vanilla essence,
1/2 cup of butter/vegetable oil and
1 pinch of salt,
For the filling/topping:
1 tin of maraschino cherries,
3-4 tbsp of powdered sugar and
3-4 cups of heavy whipping cream.
For the syrup
1 cup of water,
1/2 cup of sugar and
1 tsp of vanilla essence.
For garnishing:
chocolate curls and
whole cherries.

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F . Grease and flour a 9" inch round pan. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients- flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder and sift this, so that everything gets mixed well and to avoid lumps. Now add the sugar, vanilla essence, melted butter/oil and the eggs to this bowl with dry ingredients and beat until well blended OR the other method is to beat the eggs separately with sugar and essence till fluffy and fold in the dry mixture with the eggs. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. now remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the syrup: Boil the water with the sugar in a saucepan for few minutes. the syrup should neither be sticky nor water. Remove from fire, cool it and add the vanilla essence. Cool completely before using it.
Whip the cream and the sugar with an electric mixer until you get soft peaks. Drain the juice from the cherries and preserve 3-4 tbsp for the syrup.Preserve some whole cherries for garnishing on the top and chop the remaining cherries to small pieces.
Now to assemble the cake. Cut the cake horizontally with a serrated knife into 2/3 layers. On the first layer, sprinkle some of the above syrup to moisten the cake. Now spread a layer of the whipped cream and sprinkle the chopped cherries on the whipped cream.Now place the second layer and repeat the same procedure. place the last slice of cake and frost the cake completely with whipped cream on the top and the sides. Garnish with some chocolate shavings/ chocolate sprinkles/ chocolate curls and with whole cherries.
Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.


Sending this Black Forest Gateau to:
In Love with Delectable Desserts, Pastries and Ice creams hosted by Radhika Vasanth of Food for 7 stages of life and Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong
Show me your cake event hosted by Divya of Dil Se .