Eggless Black Forest Cake-My first attempt at Cake Decoration.

Eggless Black Forest Cake:

Yesterday was my Husband’s Birthday and this time I wanted to surprise him with something that I had never tried my hand at before.

I always felt that baking a Gateau was such an ordeal and that’s one of the reason why I had never tried baking any of the cream pasteries etc, to add to it my husband is very health conscious and often stays away from cakes and cream cakes..This was also one of the reasons for my demotivation in trying out cream cakes:)  I had some whipping cream lying in my fridge, I decided on a black forest gateau.  My challenge was to get my husband to eat and not just taste the cake. As I was googling for a healthy chocolate cake recipe, I came across Madhuram’s cake which is made up of wheat flour. I finally decided on making this cake as a base for my Black forest cake.

The basic chocolate cake is an inspiration from egglesscooking.com. Thanks Madhuram for posting such a wonderful healthy recipe.

For the Basic Chocolate cake you’ll need:

Maida (all purpose flour): 1/4 cup

Whole Wheat Flour: 3/4 cup

Baking powder: 1/2 teaspn

Baking Soda: 1 teaspn

Cocoa Powder: 6 tbspn

Powdered Sugar: 3/4 cup

Unsweetened Applesauce: 1/2 cup

oil: 2 tbspns

Hot coffee:1/4 cup(mixed 1 teaspn instant coffee Bru in 1/4 cup milk)

Milk: 1/4 cup

Yogurt: 1/4 cup

Vanilla essence: 1 teaspn

Procedure:

The original recipe had asked for a 8″ pan, but I’ve used a 6″ one as I needed a little height to make the layers in the cake. Grease a 6″ round pan and dust it with cocoa powder and keep aside. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C for 10 mins.

In a large bowl, sift maida, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Make a well in the centre and pour in all the wet ingredients viz. yogurt, milk, oil, applesauce, vanilla essence,hot coffee and gently fold to form a batter consistency.

Pour the batter into the 6″ pan and bake it at 160 deg C for 30 mins or till the skewer inserted comes clean. Once the cake is done, transfer it onto a wire rack for cooling. Let it cool completely before doing any icing.

For the Black Forest assembling you’ll need: for this portion I’ve referred to Madhuri’s cookcurrynook. Thanks Mads for giving some wonderful tips.

Sugar syrup: 1/2 cup(mix sugar and water to the proportion of 1:1)

Cherries: 1 cup pitted (some I’ve halved and some I’ve chopped fine for the filling)

Whipping Cream: 1.5 cup (mine already had sugar in it, or else add icing sugar accordingly)

Grated Chocolate shredding: 1 cup or more if you like to.

Procedure.

Chill the whipping cream, bowl for whipping and the hand mixer blade in the refrigerator before whipping. The whipping cream could be chilled overnight if you have planned ahead.

Meanwhile, chop few cherries into halves and few into small pieces. Make the sugar syrup with 1:1 consistency and keep it aside.

In the chilled steel bowl add the whipping cream and use a hand mixer to whip it till it forms soft peaks. Keep stopping and checking the mixer from time to time as you do not want to over beat it.

Once the cake is completely cooled. Level out the cake by cutting off all the uneven portions. Cut the cake into transverse or horizontal layers, I made 2 layers. I just had to cut the cake at its middle, but if you need to make more layers you may need to mark first and then proceed to get even layers. Separate the slices and place one of the slices on the plate you need to present. Drizzle the sugar syrup gently on the slice and with the help of a palette knife or a spatula spread the whipping cream evenly. Sprinkle some chopped cherries on top. Put the second layer of cake on top of it and add some sugar syrup and cover it with a layer of whipped cream. Cover the sides too and let it refrigerate for 2 hours.

Once the cake has set properly finish the top and the sides with some more whipped cream. This is the first time I was using a piping bag with a star nozzle. I was a little apprehensive at the beginning but once I started there was no looking back..I was hoping I had more cakes to decorate:).Let your creativity flow and decorate the way you like it. I’ve then decorated with grated chocolate and cherry topping. You can smear chocolate shredding on the sides too, I haven’t as my husband is not much of a chocolate fan and the cake was for him. Ravi loved the cake and I was quite surprised as he ate quite a big piece of chocolate cake:)..It felt so good and it’s a great feeling when somebody loves the food you make..On that note, I would like to wish him all the Luck and Happiness..Happy Birthday!

Advertisement