Black Forest Cake (Vegan)

Makes 10 servings

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Chocolate, cherries and cream – heaven!
Don’t know about you, but I can’t think of many combinations better than this one.

The black forest cake is one of my favourite cakes and surprisingly easy to make. It’s as simple as chocolate sponge, chocolate cream, butter cream, cherries and cherry syrup.
Every element is quick and easy to make with basic ingredients.
The chocolate cream is a game changer; you won’t believe how delicious whipped chocolate ganache can be! And now you know how to make the most amazing chocolate cream for any cake in just 5 minutes.
For the Black Forest cake you can use fresh cherries, cherries in syrup or cherry jam. I’ve used fresh cherries on this occasion because they are in season.
I’ve left the best news for last! You will end up having leftover ingredients to make yourself a little cake to test before serving this to your guests. You know…for quality testing 😊
The chocolate sponges turn out quite domed, so you will need to cut the top off to level them; use that extra sponge for your mini cake. There’s also going to be some leftover cream; just enough for you to build your mini cake. Remember to save yourself some cherries and syrup for that as well.
Enjoy a real treat with your loved ones. No one will believe this is vegan!

Ingredients

Chocolate sponge
1 tablespoon Flora buttery and 1 tablespoon flour to coat the cake tins
1 and ½ cup soy milk
2 teaspoon cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 & 2/3 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup sugar
a pinch of salt
½ cup rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate cream
200g dark chocolate
200ml coconut milk (from a can)

Buttercream
100g Flora buttery
150g icing sugar (sifted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Syrup
50ml cherry brandy
75ml cherry syrup (from a jar of cherries in syrup)

Other ingredients
200g cherries or cherry jam

Method

Chocolate sponge
1.Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease with Flora buttery and coat in flour, two 20cm round cake tins.
2. Heat up the milk for 30 seconds in the microwave and add the cider vinegar. Leave to curdle and move to the next step.
3. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt).
4. Add in the wet ingredients (curdled milk, oil and vanilla) and mix together until combined.
5. Split the mixture between the two cake tins.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to sit in the cake tins for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove from the cake tins and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate cream
1. Use a microwave safe medium size bowl. Break the chocolate into chunks and add it to the bowl with the coconut milk. Heat in the microwave for 30 second intervals and mix with a spoon after every 30 seconds, until melted and combined. It took me about 3-4 30 second intervals. Do not over heat the mixture as the chocolate could burn and that will ruin the cream.
2. Leave the resulting chocolate ganache to cool down completely and set. You could also place it in the fridge to speed up the process.
3. Use a hand/stand mixer to whip the chocolate ganache until it becomes fluffy and light (2-3 minutes).

Buttercream
Sift the icing sugar. Use a hand/stand mixer to cream the Flora buttery with sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract. Mix until pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes on high speed).

Syrup
Mix the cherry brandy and cherry syrup in a jug.

Assembling the cake
1. Remove the pips from 2/3^rd of the cherries. Keep the rest of the cherries whole for decoration.
2. Level the sponges by cutting off the domes with a sharp knife. Keep the leftovers for a mini test cake.
3. Put each cream in its own piping bag.
4. Place one chocolate sponge on a plate. Soak the sponge with half of the syrup. Pipe chocolate and butter cream alternating. Top with most of the pitted cherries and keep a few cherries for decoration. Place the second chocolate sponge on top. Soak the sponge with the rest of the syrup. Pipe chocolate and butter cream alternating. Decorate with more cherries. Place the cake in the fridge and remove a couple of hours before serving to bring it to room temperature.
5. Use the leftover sponge, creams and cherries to make yourself a mini cake (for quality testing purposes). You’ve earned it for baking such a wonderful cake for your loved ones 🙂

Black Forest Cake

Makes 10 servings

Black Forest Cake

Juicy cherries, rich chocolate and fluffy Chantilly cream – what a way to impress your guests!

I first made this cake for the birthday of my sister in law this year. It was a surprise birthday cake and I was looking to make a cake that was special, but also a safe choice for all to enjoy.

It also had to be quick and easy to make as I only had the night before to make it, after a long day at work. Although the cake has numerous layers and looks quite impressive, the elements are basic and quick to put together. It’s all about planning! Start by making two chocolate sponge cakes and let them cool down while making the Chocolate Ganache; next make the Chantilly cream, drain the cherries and mix the cherry syrup with Cherry Brandy. Slice the sponge cakes in half and you are all ready to assemble the cake.
Have fun with it!

If you plan ahead, you can spread the work load by making the chocolate sponge cakes the day before (cool and store in an air tight container) and make the rest of the elements on the day.

*Now veganised! New recipe for vegan Black Forest.

Ingredients

Chocolate sponge

• 1 tablespoon butter & 1 tablespoon flour (to coat the cake tins)
• 6 eggs
• 10 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoon cocoa powder

Chocolate Ganache

• 200ml double cream
• 95g dark chocolate (chopped)
• 95g milk chocolate (chopped)
• 15g butter

Chantilly cream

• 500ml double cream
• 2.5 tablespoons sugar
• A few drops of vanilla extract

1 jar Morello cherry compote (400g)
50-100ml Cherry Brandy

Method
1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6. Coat in butter and flour two 8 inch round cake tins.
2. Separate the egg whites and yolks form 6 eggs. Place the egg whites in a large mixer bowl and mix on high speed until white and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix on high speed until the sugar melts and the egg whites are stiff and shiny. From this point onwards, it is very important not to over mix the cake batter and keep the air in, so I recommend using a balloon whisk. Add the vanilla extract and egg yolks and whisk just enough to incorporate. Sift the flour and cocoa powder and gently incorporate in the cake mix. The resulting consistency should be like a light mousse.
3. Pour half of the cake batter in each cake tin and level. Place both cake tins on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes at gas mark 6, then reduce the heat to gas mark 5 and bake for another 10 -15 minutes, until the sponges are risen and slightly shrunk away from the edge of the tin. Do not open the oven door before 20 minutes of baking, as this will cause the cakes to collapse.
4. Take the cake tins out of the oven and remove the sponge cakes straight away by turning the tins onto a wooden board. I recommend you use a wood surface or a surface covered with baking parchment, otherwise the cake will stick to the plate or other surfaces while cooling down (so don’t let them cool down in the tin). Once cold, slice each sponge in half using a sharp knife. This should give you four sponge layers to work with.
5. To make the Chocolate Ganache: in a small sauce pan, over low heat, add the double cream and constantly stir until it starts to slightly simmer. Remove from heat. Stir in the roughly chopped chocolate. Slowly stir through the cream until the chocolate melts and forms a Ganache. Mix in the butter and leave the Ganache to cool.
6. To make the Chantilly cream: in a mixing bowl add the double cream, sugar and vanilla extract and whisk until thick.
7. Drain the cherries and save the cherry syrup in a bowl. Mix the cherry syrup with the Cherry Brandy. You will use this syrup to soak the sponges with.
8. You now have all the elements to assemble the cake. Place sponge no. 1 on a cake plate and soak with 1/4^th of the cherry syrup. Add 1/4^th of the Chantilly cream (you can pipe the cream or use a knife spread over the sponge) and 1/4^th of the cherries. Top with sponge no. 2 and soak the sponge no 2. with 1/4^th of the cherry syrup, top with  ½ of the Chocolate Ganache, 1/4^th of the Chantilly cream and 1/4^th of the cherries. Top with sponge no. 3 and repeat. Top with sponge no. 4 and repeat. The end! Enjoy 🙂