Vegan German Black Forest Cake
To be honest, I’ve never eaten a German Black Forest cake (and neither did Julia). But actually, many of the components of a Black Forest cake sound pretty good: chocolate batter, whipped cream, morello cherries, and grated chocolate. The only ingredient I wasn’t really sure about was the “Kirschwasser “. We don’t mean the water in the glass of the morello cherries, but the alcoholic fruit brandy. You add the brandy on the cake layers, which gives the cake the original taste.
Fortunately, the taste of the cherry brandy is very decent in the end. For a non-alcoholic (and child-friendly version), you can, of course, ignore the cherry brandy. For the original taste (like from the bakery), you need a few drops of the fruit brandy, and they are definitely worth it. The vegan Black Forest cake was definitely my favorite cake of our theme week “7 vegan cake classics” even if I never had a Black Forest Cake before. The only question I still have is: What to do with the remaining 900 ml of cherry brandy?
Vegan German Black Forest Cake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegan butter (for greasing)
sponge cake
420 g (3.25 cups) flour
40 g (0.3 cups) cocoa powder
250 g (1.25 cups) white sugar
16 g (0.5 oz) baking powder
8 g (0.28 oz) vanilla sugar
500 ml (2 cups) sparkling water
100 ml (0.4 cups) vegetable oil (rapeseed or sunflower oil)
100 ml (0.4 cups) cherry brandy
cherry layer
- 1 glass (720 g/25.4 oz) morello cherries
- 40 g (1.4 oz) cornstarch
- 2 tbsp cherry brandy
whipped cream
- 1 liter (4 cups) vegan cream for whipping
- 40 g (1.4 oz) cream stiffener
decoration
- 150 g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate shavings
Instructions
sponge cake
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F, circulating air.
- Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, vanilla sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
- Add the oil and sparkling water and stir in only briefly.
- Grease a cake tin (26 cm in diameter) with vegan butter and add the dough.
- Bake at 180°C/356°F for 40 minutes on a medium rack.
- Make sure to test the doneness of your cake – a wooden pick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Cherries & Cream
- Put the cherries in a sieve and save the cherry juice.
- Mix 100 ml cherry juice with 40 g cornstarch in a small bowl.
- Set 12 cherries aside to decorate the cake later.
- Boil the remaining cherry juice in a small saucepan and stir in the starch mix. Simmer for a minute, stir in the remaining cherries and cherry brandy and remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Whip the vegan cream with the cream stiffener and keep in the fridge.
serving
- Divide the sponge cake twice horizontally using a cake knife or a cake slicer, so you get three equally high cakes.
- Drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of cherry brandy on the bottom cake and distribute the boiled cherries evenly on top. Spread a layer of whipped cream on the cherry layer.
- Place the second base on the whipped cream, drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of cherry brandy over it, and spread another layer of whipped cream. Place the third base, drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of cherry brandy over it. Frost the top and the sides of the cake with the remaining whipped cream.
- Pipe rounds of frosting around the top of the cake and place a whole cherry over each one.
- Cover sides and top of the cake with chocolate shavings.
- Let the cake chill for at least 2-3 hours in your fridge.
