This black forest cake is made by layering moist chocolate cake layers with fresh cherries, cherry liquor, whipped cream, and topped with chocolate ganache.
Preheat the oven to 180 (350f) and prep three 8-inch baking pans with parchment paper.
Into a big bowl, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well with a whisk until combined.
Add the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Mix well until combined.
Add the kosher salt and the hot coffee, mix well until the batter is smooth.
Divide the mixture into three 8-inch baking pans, we suggest using cake strips for even baking. (weight the batter for better results) and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before adding the frosting.
While the cakes are baking, pit and slice in half fresh cherries and place them in a medium bowl. Reserve the prettiest cherries for the top of the cake.
For the kirsch syrup:
Into a small saucepan, add the cherry juice, kirsch, and sugar. Mix it on medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Bring the kirsch syrup to a boil and remove it from heat. Let the syrup cool completely before adding it to the cake.
For the whipped cream:
Into a large mixing bowl, add cold whipping cream, powder sugar, and vanilla extract.
Mix with an electric hand whisk or with a stand mixer (balloon whisk attachment) and mix until stiff peaks form.
For the chocolate ganache:
Melt dark chocolate and heavy cream in a small to medium mixing bowl in the microwave for about 50 seconds.
Let the chocolate and the cream sit for 10 minutes for the chocolate to melt, then mix until the chocolate ganache is smooth and silky.
Assembly:
Soak the first cake layer with the kirsch syrup, then top with the whipped cream, then top the whipped cream with as many cherry halves that you can press into the cake.
Repeat this process with the next cake layer.
Add the third cake layer on top, soak it with kirsch syrup, top it with chocolate ganache, and finally top it with whole fresh cherries for decoration.
Notes
Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs and buttermilk. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly. you don’t want to place cold batter into the oven.Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have moist cake and not dense and dry cake.Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.Be patient! I know it’s extremely tempting to eat and frost this cake as its pulled out of the oven, but let the cake cool for at least and hour so it will be more firm and won’t crumble up. This step ensures that the frosting won’t melt off the cake. You never want to frost warm cupcakes or cakes.