Black Forest Cake

This is an assembled cake. We have to start thinking about how we are going to put all of our information in a concise portfolio at the end of the quarter, so maybe if I start to construct this blog with some of the same ideas in mind I wont have to do a lot of editing come March. So for this cake we used the cake from the two stage method (Devil Food Cake)

Black Forest Cake: Yields 1 9" cake
Ingredients:
1 9" Devil Food Cake
16 oz. Heavy Cream
3 (ish) oz. Sugar*
Simple syrup
Kirsch, or other liquor
Cherries
Dark chocolate shavings

Tools:
Piping bag, large star tip, offset palette knife (offset spatula), serrated Knife, bowl scrapper, pastry brush, turntable, 9" cake card, 10" or 12" decorative cake card (for presentation really)

*You want to use aproximately 20% of the cream amount for sugar


MOP: assemble
Make chantilly cream. In a mixing bowl using a whisk attachment whip the heavy cream and sugar to a medium to stiff peaks on high speed (8 on a Kitchenaide, 3 on a Hobart). Set aside when done.

Take the 9" devil food cake out of the freezer, unwrap it and place it on the turntable. Slice it in half (the best way to do this is keep your serrated knife level and spin the turn table. That way you decrease your chances of cutting in a crooked line.) If the cake is very uneaven you will want to trim off the top or bottom so that it is more flat. Turn the cake over so that the baked bottom is not the new "top", and place the new bottom half of the cake on the 9" cake card and on top of the turn table. Set the other half of the cake aside for now.

Use a pastry brush to generously dab the simple syrup mixture on the cake. This aides in moistening the sponge (cake) layer.
The simple syrup mixture can be any combination of 1pt sugar to 1 part water (eg. 1qt water to 2# sugar), plus you can add a little bit of liquor to give it flavouring. Using the liquid from a canned fruit container is also very sufficient and flavourful!
Fill your pastry bag with the Chantilly cream. Pipe three circles in the shape of a bullseye leaving room for a circle of fruit in between each circle; one around the edge, one closer in, one closer in.

Fill in the empty portion in between each circle of cream with a line of cherries. Make sure to "dry" the cherries slightly on a towel or just by straining the liquid from the before hand, this will help you control the amount of liquid going into the cake.
Now take the "top" portion of the chocolate sponge cake that you had set aside earlier. You want to place it cut side down on top of the prepared cake. Press down gently on this layer to get everything to sit in place. Moisten this layer with simple syrup mixture just like before.

With your offset spatula, take a generous portion of cream and place it in the middle of your cake. Moving from the middle to the edges with your spatula frost the top of the cake. Using your spatula so that it is at a slightly tilted angle from a flat position relative to the cake, place it in the middle of the cake and turn the turn table to flatten out the frosting on top.
To frost the sides of the cake, either hold the cake in your left hand or keep it on the turn table and apply the frosting to the sides thickly in a vertical swoop, do this again right next to the portion you just frosted.

Then use your spatula to combine those frosted portions, in a back and forth motion. Continue in this fashion all the way around the cake.
When the cake is frosted, use your spatula at a flat angle to go around the sides and straighten it out, dont move your spatula but turn the turntable. Keep in mind that you want to have about a fourth inch thick wall of frosting around the sides of the cake to help keep the sponge cake moist.

To flatten out the edges around the top of the cake take your spatula at a flat angle and come down from the top and pull up in the middle. As Chef Mark described, "Imagine an airplane coming in for a landing, and he sees a little kitty cat on the run way, and he's gotta take off. So you gotta come from the top and pull up. To miss that little kitty cat, you gotta pull up."

Finish off the cake by decorating the tops and sides. Use your piping bag with the star tip to pipe 12 rosettes of whipped cream around the top edge, place a cherry in the center of each rosette. By doing this you are giving each slice of cake an embellishment.
Use the shaved chocolate to decorate the sides of the cake. If you cooled the chocolate you can easily use your hand to place it on the sides of the cake. You can also "dump" a generous amount of chocolate shaving in the center of the top of the cake.

To make shaved chocolate:
Heat up dark chocolate in a stainless steel bowl on top of a water filled sauce pan. When the chocolate is at a thin melted consistency pour it on a very clean marble surface. Use your offset spatula to flatten the chocolate out to a very thin layer, let it dry. Use a bench scraper to score sections in the chocolate (if you want small shavings) and scrape the chocolate off the table with a quick pushing motion. Freeze the chocolate until you are going to use it to prevent it from melting or being too soft to apply to the cake.