North of the Wall: German Black Forest Cake

A view over the hills of the eastern edge of Germany's Black Forest facing France

What's been keeping House Cook from having much chance to cook these days? Distance and many, many changes.

This has been a season of change for us all. Anna-Lara has found a job and has been getting used to a new rhythm of life, Katy-Lynn is preparing for college, Julianne is jumping into her exciting new world of high school, and the youngest of us has been working as her soon-to-be rockstar self, practicing piano and winning science fairs. Meanwhile, I, Sarah-Lambert, have moved to Germany.

Today is the first in our new series, "North of the Wall," featuring foods and drinks and adventures from Germany where winter is most definitely coming.

Feast your eyes on some delicious, traditional Black Forest cake:

Yeah... tasty looking, right? It certainly is.

When I first started looking for the recipe, I could find only German ones. Not too much of a problem since translating a recipe isn't the most difficult, but thankfully, I found one written up in English that is only a tiny bit different from the one in German (you can find the English one I used as reference here). The recipe we're sharing with you today from North of the Wall is a mix of these two recipes.

German Black Forest Cake

Moderate difficulty. Prep time 40-60 minutes (I took 60, but you're probably faster). Cook time 40 minutes.

Ingredients: 

Cake:

1 2/3 cups   flour
2/3   cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp   baking soda
1 tsp   salt
1/2 c   shortening
1 1/2   cups sugar
2   eggs
1 tsp   vanilla extract
1 cup   buttermilk
2/3 cup   kirsch (cherry schnapps)

Filling: 

1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp strong coffee or espresso brewed and cooled
1 (14 oz) can of dark sweet pitted cherries in heavy syrup

Whipped frosting:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp kirsch
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
grated semi-sweet chocolate for garnish
extra dark cherries for decoration


Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Step 2: Line the bottoms of two 8 inch round pans with parchment paper (or tin foil) circles.

Step 3: Sift together flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt and set mixture aside.

Step 4: Cream shortening and sugar until nice and fluffy. Then beat in eggs and vanilla.

Step 5: Slowly, add the flour mixture into the shortening mixture alternating with your buttermilk until they are thoroughly combined. **If the mixture seems too dry add a tiny bit more buttermilk**

Step 6: Pour the mixture into your pans and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Step 7: When the cake halves are both baked, allow them to cool thoroughly. Once cooled, poke holes all over them using a toothpick or fork and sprinkle the kirsch (cherry schnapps) over them generously. How much you use is up to how strongly you'd like the cake to taste of schnapps. Remember: the alcohol will not be baked off, so don't get crazy with it if you're making this sugar treat for your kids!

Step 8: Cream the butter until light and fluffy.

Step 9: Add the powdered sugar, pinch of salt, and coffee and mix thoroughly.

Step 10: Remove the cake halves from their pans. Place the first half on a plate and spread the mixture from steps 8 and 9 over the surface of the layer. Top this with the pitted cherries and their syrup. **I only ended up using 3/4 of the can. Use as little or as much of the cherry/syrup business as you think looks good**

Step 10: In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks.

Step 11: Beat in the vanilla, cocoa and kirsch listed under "whipped frosting" in the ingredients.

Step 12: Frost top and sides of cake and decorate with a dusting of chocolate shavings and a lining of cherries. Want more chocolate? Get crazy with your shavings and apply them liberally!

Keep the cake refrigerated until serving.

Yellow Rose of Tyrell Cake

Oh happy day! A wedding! Well, actually, several weddings! As this third season of Game of Thrones winds down, many of our favorite Westeros lords and ladies are getting married--whether they're happy about it or not. We're hoping it all turns out happily, but this is Westeros, so that just doesn't seem likely. 

For us, a happy wedding means good cake. For a Tyrell, a good cake means roses that are growing strong. We've whipped up this rose covered cake to celebrate the upcoming big day for Margaery Tyrell. And did we mention the hazelnut? The cake, icing, and Nutella filling are all hazelnut flavored, making for a delicious treat. 

Today we're giving you the cake recipe, but look out for our rose tutorial coming later this week where we'll teach you this very easy technique to create a beautiful Tyrell Rose Cake of your own.

 Yellow Rose of Tyrell Cake Recipe

Prep time: 30 minutes, bake time 25-30 minutes, icing 30 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate
Serves: 12-15 

Cake Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter (if you use salted butter then don’t use the ½ tsp of salt)
• 1 ¾ granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp hazelnut extract
• 1 cup room temperature milk

Buttercream Icing Ingredients:

• 2lb bag of powdered sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• ½ cup milk
• 2 ½ tsp hazelnut extract
• Yellow and green food coloring

*You will also need Nutella for the cake filling 

Hazelnut Cake Recipe:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 inch cake pans or three 6 inch pans. 

Step 2: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl

Step 3: In a large bowl beat butter until creamy 

Step 4: Gradually add sugar and beat thoroughly

Step 5: Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly before adding the next egg

Step 6: Beat in hazelnut

Step 7: Add flour slowly, adding milk as you add flour in order to help the mixture beat more easily

Step 8: Pour mixture into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until finished. Bake time will vary depending on size of pan you used.

Crusting Buttercream Icing Recipe:

Step 1: Beat together shortening and hazelnut extract until creamy in a large bowl.

Step 2: Slowly add powdered sugar. You will need to add no more than a cup at a time and beat the mixture thoroughly before adding more. As the icing becomes harder to beat, slowly add milk. Only add a little at a time until all sugar and milk is added and icing is smooth.

Step 3: Separate about a quarter cup of icing from the mixture. 

Step 4: Mix green food coloring into the small portion of icing

Step 5: Mix several drops of yellow food coloring into the larger portion of icing

How to Decorate the Cake:

Cake Layers:

Step 1: Place the first layer on your cake plate. It’s easiest to place the cake upside-down so that the flattest part of the cake is facing up.

Step 2: Add some yellow icing to piping bag with a round icing tip. Put a rim of icing around the top of the cake layer. Then fill in the rim with Nutella. Place the second layer on top of the first. If you are using three 6 inch pans, then repeat this process and add the third layer.

Crumb Coat:

Step 1: To crumb coat the cake, add a thin layer of yellow icing to the cake. You only want to add enough icing to hold in the crumbs and to give the roses something to stick to.

How do you make the roses? See our tutorial here: 

Frosting Roses tutorial by Anna-Lara of House Cook