#black forest gateau

Pinkie Pie is examining the last fragments of a Black Forest Gateau cake.

black forest gateau

black forest gateau, or black forest cake is a cake made with cocoa powder, whipped cream, cherries, kirsch, and dark chocolate.

the origins of this cake and its name are disputed, however the cake’s recipe from 1927 is kept at an archive in radolfzell, germany. the cake gained popularity in the second half of the 20th century and there’s even a festival dedicated to this cake that’s organized in todtnauberg.

the earliest known publication of the term “schwarzwälder kirschtorte” (black forest cake) was in 1915, however in 1975 a confectioner named josef keller claimed to have made the cake while working in a café in bad godesberg in 1915. in 1982 his son tried to reinforce this point, though it is known that josef could not have been in bad godesberg until after april 1915. udo rauch, a city archivist, cited the pastry chef erwin hildenbrand as the inventor of the cake in 1930. the origin of the name is similarly disputed, though food writer ursula heinzelmann claims it comes from the cake’s resemblance to the black forest region’s black, red, and white costume. however a different theory says that the cherries on the cake are supposed to resemble bollenhut headwear.

The Kopimisu (Kopi 米苏) is a word play for Kopi which is coffee in our local dialect. It is a tiramisu cake minus the alcoholic taste. The mascarpone mousse is alternated between two layers of coffee soaked chocolate chiffon cake and dusted with plenty of cocoa power. In-between mouthful of the rich and creamy cheese and cake, I can detect the strong presence of cocoa and subtle coffee fragrant. A sinful yet not too sweet dessert which I shared with my sister.

This is actually a Black Forest gateau though for some reason BreadTalk decided to name it Dark Forest (黑森林), maybe it is because there is no alcohol used. The cake is the same chocolate chiffon sandwiched with vanilla white chocolate cream, dark sweet cherries, dark chocolate mousse and topped with dark chocolate shavings and a speck of gold leaf. The cherries gave it bursts of juicy sweet and sourness which balanced out the rich and bitter chocolaty dessert.

I find the Chantilly (珍多丽) which is composed of vanilla chiffon, chantilly cheese cream, fruit cocktail, cream, topped with white chocolate shavings and half a maraschino cherry on the saccharine side. The cake plus canned fruit cocktail in syrup added up to cloying sweetness. If I have a choice, I did replace the canned fruits with fresh strawberries which would add some tartness to balance out the overall sweetness.