March 24, 2017
Rob
6

How to make a modern version of a classic: Black Forest

If you have followed some of my previous posts, you know I like elaborated cakes with many different layers. Yes, the kind of cakes that make me say “Challenge accepted!”.

Now that I’m filming my recipes, the process takes even longer: for this specific cake, I threw away almost a whole weekend, but it was totally worth it!

This is the modern version of a pastry classic: the Black Forest. The original cake has German origins and is made of chocolate spongecake layers sandwiched with whipped cream and sour cherries. It usually has chocolate curls on the outside, and the spongecake is moistened with kirsch, a cherry brandy.

The recipe I chose, though, comes from Philippe Rigollot, a great French pastry chef: he modernised the Black Forest making it an elegant (and super tasty) cake.

This cake is not complicated per se, but I wouldn’t recommend it to beginners. Its main components are a crunchy biscuit as base, a simple chocolate mousse and a vanilla Bavarian cream with kirsch and white chocolate, and the softest flourless chocolate spongecake in the middle. The decoration involves tempering chocolate, which is not hard but requires practice (and I am not satisfied yet with my tempering skills).

*Note: to temper chocolate, just melt it at 55°C, then cool it down quickly to 28° and then reheat it to 32° (but not beyond, otherwise you’ll have to start from scratch). After this you can spread the chocolate on PVC sheets or strips and cut it the shape you want.

Anyway, this cake is officially one of my favourites now! The mousses are perfect, but the cool touch is the base, which is very crunchy, yet flaky and also a bit salty (which goes perfectly with chocolate!).

What I loved the most is the decoration on the top with stylized trees made of chocolate mousse cones and tempered chocolate rounds, they are just too cool!

So what do you think of this cake? Does it make you say “Challenge accepted” too? 🙂

 

Black Forest

Print recipe

Ingredients

Flourless cocoa spongecake

95gEgg whites
115gGranulated sugar
70gEgg yolks
20gCocoa powder

Crumble crust

145gUnsalted butter, room temperature
25gDark chocolate (70%)
50gPowdered sugar
2gSalt
105gPastry flour
9gPotato starch (or cornstarch)
40gCocoa butter (or unsalted butter)
40gCrushed crepes dentelles (or any crunchy wafer-like product reduced to crumbs)

White chocolate Bavarian cream

200gMilk
=1/2Vanilla bean
30gGranulated sugar
36gEgg yolks
15gCornstarch
30gKirsch
6gGelatin
60gWhite chocolate
190gHeavy cream

Dark chocolate mousse

1.5gGelatin
70gMilk
85gDark chocolate (70%)
145gHeavy cream

Filling and decoration

Dark chocolate squares and rounds
Canned pitted cherries (macerated in kirsch)

Directions

Flourless cocoa spongecake

1
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks with the sugar
2
Quickly whisk in the egg yolks (max 5 seconds with the mixer at low speed)
3
Gently incorporate the sifted cocoa powder
4
Pour into an 18cm cake ring and back for 12 minutes at 180°C. After baking, remove the ring and let cool down on a wire rack.

Crumble crust

5
Pour the dark chocolate at 40°C over the room temperature butter, sifted powdered sugar and salt
6
Add the sifted flour and starch until fully incorporated
7
Roll out the dough to 3mm between two sheets of parchment paper
8
Bake at 155°C for 20 minutes then let cool down
9
Mix 170g of the crust finely. Keep the rest for decoration
10
Add the melted cocoa butter and the crushed crêpes dentelles to the fine crumbles
11
Place the mixture inside an 18cm cake ring lined with a PVC strip and flatten with a spoon

Dark chocolate mousse

12
Soften the gelatin in cold water. In the meantime bring the milk to a boil.
13
Pour the boiling milk over the dark chocolate, add the softened gelatin and whisk until an emulsion forms ("ganache")
14
When the ganache is at 40°C whisk in 1/3 of the cream whipped to soft peaks.
15
Add the remaining whipped cream and incorporate gently with an upward movement using a spatula.
16
Pipe the mousse immediately inside the cake ring and keep 50g of mousse aside for decoration. Start piping on the edge of the ring, to make sure the mousse adheres well to the PVC strip and final aspect is completely smooth.
17
Add a few cherries to the mousse in the ring
18
Place the flourless spongecake inside the ring, on top of the cherries

White chocolate Bavarian cream

19
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, half of the sugar and starch
20
Heat the milk with the remaining sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan
21
When the milk is boiling, pour it in three times over the egg mixture and keep whisking all the time to prevent the yolks from curdling
22
Put back the liquid mixture into the saucepan and cook on medium heat whisking continuously
23
Allow the pastry cream to boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and place in a clean bowl
24
Cool the pastry cream quickly to 50°C then add the softened gelatin
25
Add the melted white chocolate at 40°C until it's fully incorporated
26
Add the kirsch and whisk again
27
Let the mixture cool down to 35°C then incorporate 1/3 of the whipped cream quickly with the whisk
28
Add the remaining whipped cream and incorporate gently with an upward movement using a spatula.
29
Pour the white chocolate Bavarian cream inside the cake ring until it's full. Start piping on the edge of the ring, to make sure the mousse adheres well to the PVC strip and final aspect is completely smooth.
30
Smoothen the top with a long spatula. Freeze the cake for at least 6 hours.

Decoration

31
Add the remaining crumbs on the top of the cake, giving them an irregular look
32
Pipe the remaining chocolate mousse in small cones in random positions all over the top of the cake
33
Remove the ring and the PVC strip. Sprinkle with powdered sugar
34
Place the squares of tempered chocolate one by one on the side of the cake
35
Add the rounds of temperate chocolate on the top of the mousse cones
36
Place some whole sour cherries next to the "trees" on top of the cake.

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