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This Black Forest Cake is my version of the famous German chocolate cake, aka “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.” It has 4 chocolatey layers, 1 lb of kirsch-infused cherries and a light whipped cream.
It is a stunning and decadent cake but it’s fairly simple to make with just 11 ingredients (which is peanuts for a cake!). The chocolate shavings make this Black Forest cake very forgiving in terms of decoration for those of us who are cake styling impaired :).
This black forest cake is an adult cake as it has kirsch (a cherry liqueur) and isn’t overly sweet. The kirsch is not overpowering but you can tell it’s there. I figured if you slice it into 12 generous pieces, each would have 1 tsp of kirsch. If making this cake for children, omit the kirsch and add a 1 Tbsp sugar to the cherry syrup for more flavor.
*Recipe Tips: You can use thawed frozen cherries or canned cherries. If using canned cherries, select cherries in water or juice, omit the 1/4 cup additional water and use the juice from the can instead. Also, maraschino cherries can be used for the topping/decor. A golden rum would taste good too, but kirsch is more authentic. Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly!
*Note:
Recipe for the Black Forest Cake updated 4/22/16 to be more fail proof. Several of you mentioned your cakes did not rise as much as mine. I heard you and re-baked the cake. After some testing, I noticed the best results when increasing the mixing time to 8 minutes (rather than 5) and using 4 Tbsp butter (rather than 8). It rose beautifully and perfectly. Enjoy!
Ingredients for Chocolate Cake Layers:
9 large eggs, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled (not hot)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
What you’ll need:
Two 9″ cake pans and flour sifter or fine sieve
Ingredients For the Filling:
4 cups (1 lb) bing cherries, pitted, plus 12 whole cherries for decor (If not in season, see *Recipe Tips)
3 Tbsp kirsch (a cherry liqueur)
1/4 cup cold water
For the Frosting/Topping:
3 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup Confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp kirsch (cherry liqueur)
4 oz good quality dark chocolate
How to Make Black Forest Cake Layers:
If you’ve never made a European Sponge Cake, watch the video before you get started to see what the batter should look like.
Prep: Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of two 9″ round pans with parchment paper (don’t grease sides).
1. Beat 9 large eggs with the whisk attachment for 1 min on high speed. With the mixer on, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating on high speed a full 8 min. It will be thick and fluffy.
Tip from reader, Hilda: “How do you know u get the right consistency? Lift up your beater (whisk) from the batter. Make a figure “8” using the batter that drip off the beater. Then count to 10 seconds. If the figure 8 still remains on top of the batter, then u have the right consistency. If the figure 8 sinks into the batter before 10 secs, then u need to beat it longer.”
Tip: the mixture it should fall off the whisk and still ‘stand up’ on the cake mixture
2. Whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup cocoa powder and sift in thirds into the batter, folding with a spatula between each addition. Once all flour is in, continue to fold just until no streaks of flour remain, scraping the bottom of the bowl to get any pockets of flour hiding at the bottom; do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter.
3. Gently fold in 1/2 tsp vanilla and room temp butter, folding as you add butter in a steady stream and scraping from the bottom to make sure you don’t have butter pooling at the bottom. Fold just until incorporated. Divide batter equally between two prepared cake pans and BAKE RIGHT AWAY in fully preheated oven at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes (my oven took 22 min), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Note: Once the butter is added, it must be transferred to baking pans and put into the oven immediately or the batter can deflate quickly.
4. Let cool in pans for 10 min then run a knife or thin edged spatula around the edges to loosen cake. Transfer to a wire rack and remove parchment backing. When cakes are at room temp, and you’re ready to assemble, slice cake layers in half with a long serrated knife.
Making the Syrup for Black Forest Cake:
1. Roughly chop pitted cherries and place in a medium bowl with 3 Tbsp kirsch. Let sit at room temp for at least 30 min, stirring a couple times, then drain cherries in a sieve over a bowl. Keep the cherries and syrup. Add 1/4 cup cold filtered water to the syrup to get about 3/4 cup total syrup.
Making the Cream:
For best results freeze bowl and whisk attachment 15 min before using.
1. Beat 3 1/2 cups heavy cream with whisk attachment on high speed until soft peaks form, add 1/3 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp kirsch and beat on high until stiff and spreadable (1-2 min). Refrigerate until ready to use (tip: keep whisk attachment in the bowl – you can whip it another 30 seconds if it seems slightly loose after refrigeration).
Assembling your Black Forest Cake:
1. Place first cake layer on a cake stand and brush with 1/4 of the syrup. Cover the top with about 3/4 cup frosting (3 ice cream scoops’ worth) and top with 1/3 of the chopped cherries. Repeat with remaining layers and top with the flattest layer. Transfer 1 1/2 cups frosting to a pastry bag with a large flower tip and refrigerate until ready to use (don’t handle the bag too much or the cream will soften). Fill the cracks along the sides of cake with frosting then frost the top and sides with remaining frosting.
2. To make chocolate shavings, you can either melt chocolate in the microwave, spread it thin over the back of a baking sheet with the help of a food scraper, then refrigerate a few minutes and use a food scraper to create bark-like shavings. This is the more authentic way. Alternatively, you can use a potato peeler to shave a chunk of chocolate, It will still be pretty but it won’t have the same “black forest cake” feel to it.
3. Cover sides and top of cake with chocolate shavings leaving a 1″ perimeter on top for piping frosting. Pipe rounds of frosting around the top of the cake and place a whole cherry over each one. Refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving for the flavors to meld.
Black Forest Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients for Chocolate Cake Layers:
- 9 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled, not hot
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
What you'll need:
- Two 9" cake pans and flour sifter or fine sieve
Ingredients for Cherry Filling:
- 4 cups 1 lb bing cherries, pitted, plus 12 whole cherries for decor (see *Recipe Tips)
- 3 Tbsp kirsch, a cherry liqueur
- 1/4 cup cold water
For the Frosting/Topping:
- 3 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup Confectioners, powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp kirsch, cherry liqueur
- 3 oz good quality dark chocolate
Instructions
How to Make Cake Layers: Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of cake pans with parchment (don't grease sides).
- Beat 9 eggs with the whisk attachment for 1 min on high. With the mixer on, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating on high speed a full 8 min. It will be thick and fluffy. Tip: the mixture it should fall off the whisk and still ‘stand up’ on the cake mixture
- Whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup cocoa powder and sift in thirds into batter, folding with a spatula between each addition. Once all flour is in, continue to fold just until no streaks of flour remain, scraping the bottom of the bowl to get any pockets of flour; do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter.
- Gently fold in 1/2 tsp vanilla and room temp butter, folding as you add butter in a steady stream and scraping from the bottom to make sure you don't have butter pooling at the bottom. Fold just until incorporated. Divide batter equally between two prepared cake pans and BAKE RIGHT AWAY in fully preheated oven at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes (my oven took 22 min), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Note: Once the butter is added, it must be transferred to baking pans and put into the oven immediately or the batter can deflate quickly.
- Let cool in pans for 10 min then run a thin edged spatula around edges to loosen cake. Transfer to a wire rack and remove parchment backing. When cakes are at room temp, and you're ready to assemble, slice cake layers in half with a long serrated knife.
Making the Syrup:
- Roughly chop pitted cherries and place in a medium bowl with 3 Tbsp kirsch. Let sit at room temp for at least 30 min, stirring a couple times, then drain cherries in a sieve over a bowl. Keep the cherries and syrup. Add 1/4 cup cold filtered water to the syrup to get about 3/4 cup total syrup.
Making the Cream: For best results freeze bowl and whisk attachment 15 min before using.
- Beat 3 1/2 cups heavy cream with whisk attachment on high speed until soft peaks form, add 1/3 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp kirsch and beat on high until stiff and spreadable (1-2 min). Refrigerate until ready to use (tip: keep whisk attachment in the bowl - you can re-whip if it seems slightly loose after refrigeration).
Assembling your Black Forest Cake:
- Place first cake layer on a cake stand and brush with 1/4 of the syrup. Cover top with about 3/4 cup frosting and top with 1/3 of the chopped cherries. Repeat with remaining layers and top with the flattest layer. Transfer 1 1/2 cups frosting to a pastry bag with a large flower tip and refrigerate until ready to use (don't handle the bag too much or the cream will soften). Fill the cracks along the sides of cake with frosting then frost the top and sides with remaining frosting.
- To make chocolate shavings, you can either melt chocolate in the microwave, spread it thin over the back of a baking sheet, then refrigerate a few min and use a food scraper to create bark-like shavings. This is the more authentic way. Alternatively, you can use a potato peeler to shave a chunk of chocolate.
- Cover sides and top of cake with chocolate shavings leaving a 1" perimeter on top for piping frosting. Pipe rounds of frosting around the top of the cake and place a whole cherry over each one. Refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.
Notes
♥ FAVORITE THINGS ♥
Shown in this post: (no one paid us to write this; just affiliate links for stuff we love):
*The lovely turquoise Fiesta Cake Plate with Server.
*The OXO strainer/sifter is totally multi-purpose!
* This OXO Cherry Pitter (works for olives too!)
*Ofcourse the “workhorse” of the kitchen: KitchenAid Pro 6Qt
*We sure enjoy our Wusthof knife block set. Great knives are essential.
Visit our Shop to see all the tools we use and love.
Admit it, you want a slice! 🙂 What’s your favorite cherry dessert (besides this one of course)?
For best results just use a box cake mix like Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. They turn out great and are very moist. The key is in the decorating by using real cream and quality chocolate and good technique in the decorating. How do I know this? Well my dad was a professional patissier, trained and worked many years in Switzerland and this is how he always made the black forest cakes when making them at home for friends and family.
Thank you for the tip, we appreciate it!
My first sponge without chemical leavening. I’m glad you provided the “figure 8” tip as it took about twice the time to beat eggs and sugar to get fluffy. I would have given up beating too soon without that tip. I forgot the vanilla in my concentration to get the butter in correctly. Baked in two jelly roll pans, then used the filling and cherries, then rolled into a log “jelly roll” style. Used a cherry based wine in place of the liquer which left plenty of syrup for brushing the cake before addingthe filling. Because my layers were thinner than had I used 9″ round pans, I didn’t cut them in half before assembling. Did the final frosting and added chocolate shavings to my two horizontal cake rolls. Garnished with a few whole cherries.
Came out great! Looked good and tasted divine.
My cake was a bit crumble, I followed the recipe to a tee minus the alcohol. What did I do wrong?
Hi Gerda, it sounds like there may have been too much flour used, it should not be dry or crumbly. Be sure to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup. Also, if you wanted a red wine substitute and make it alcohol free, you will still need to macerate your cherries to get the liquid out. Stir 1 Tbsp of sugar into the cherries and let them get juicy then add the cherry juice or even just water to get more volume of cherry juice/syrup for soaking the cake. I think it would work best to add the juice/water before straining the cherries to get more liquid out.
Hi, Natasha! If I’m using stainless steel cake pans instead of nonstick teflon pans, should I grease the sides?
Hi Alex! You can use parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. I don’t grease the pan for this cake because the batter grips the sides of the pan to help it rise.
I haven’t made this yet but will be next week. For the frosting/topping, do I need to substitute the liqueur if I’m not going to use it (children and sober adults eating it).
Hi Halie! You can just leave it out. I hope you love the recipe!
Thank you! One more question – should I make this cake a day prior to serving? Or is day of okay?
It should be refrigerated for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving for the flavors to meld.
Does the cake have to be refrigerated 4 hours ahead of time. I want to do this recipe for a foods class but we only have a one hour class over two days.
Hi Gladys. For best results, yes. It should be refrigerated for at least four hours or overnight for the flavors to meld and absorb.
Recipe well done. The whipping cream is a must. In between layers should be halved cherries with large dots 2 inches apart and in the middle. Then place layers on top of each one.
I was a little weary to make this recipe because of some of the reviews. I followed everything exactly as the recipe says. It turned out wonderful. Thank you.
That’s great to hear, Anthony! Thank you for the feedback!
Measurements for the cream did not work out for me. I did not have nearly enough cream to do layers and cover the cake, plus flowers on top. I even measure the ice cream scoops on each layer, but then I did not have enough for the top or even to cover the entire sides. Also cream went liquid very fast, even after refrigerating the cream. I believe it needs the entire carton of heavy whipping cream and more sugar for sure.
Hi Susana, did you use a heavy whipping cream and not regular whipping cream? Heavy cream has a higher fat content which is more suitable for whipping cream. It might be more of a challenge to make whipped cream in a high humidity area as well.
Video does not match the instructions, in the video you use baking powder and I don’t see you adding the butter which by looking through the reviews is what everyone is having issues with, I had cold room temp butter and my batter immediately deflated and I ended up wasting 9 eggs. You need to update the recipe to match the video or have a video attached to this recipe that shows you making this specifically. Very missing leading when the video has a different recipe that what is being provided
Hi Phillip, we don’t have a video yet for this recipe. The video I referenced is a traditional sponge cake so people can see the texture of the batter when it’s whipped properly.
Could you use frozen cherries for this recipe as well?
Hi John, The frozen cherries would work fine except probably not for decorating the top. You can use thawed frozen cherries or canned cherries. If using canned cherries, select cherries in water or juice, omit the 1/4 cup additional water and use the juice from the can instead.
So disappointed with this recipe. I’ve made several Black Forest cakes over the years since it is my husband’s and father-in-laws favorite birthday cake. You definitely need to make a video for this one since the sponge cake tutorial does not add the additional liquid (butter) when combining. I followed every step carefully with the lightest hand and the batter still deflated. I’ll keep an eye out and try it again with the aid of a video specific to this cake. All of your other recipes have used have been fantastic.
Hi Kathy, I’m sorry to hear that. If you add the butter while it’s too warm, it can cause it to deflate. This is a recipe I have on my list to revisit to make it more forgiving. Thank you for sharing your feedback.
Made this exactly according to the recipe and it turned out perfectly. Everyone loved it. Perfectly tender chocolate sponge, just the right amount of cherry flavor in the sponge and frosting, and a light, fluffy whipped cream frosting. Love it!
I made this recipe last year for my husband’s birthday and had to search it again, because he insisted that is all he need this year. The detail in the recipe is very helpful.
Thanks from Namibia
Am I supposed to use egg white for this? I know it’s supposed to be fluffy but it doesn’t specify if I use only the wgg white or the whole egg to make a fluffy consistency
Hi Lin, we use the whole egg, beating that mixture together in step one will make it nice and fluffy. I hope that helps.
Hi Natasha, beautiful cake, does it need baking powder?
Thanks, Susan! There’s no baking powder in the recipe, you may click Jump to recipe to go directly to the recipe card.
Natasha Has never lead me wrong!! This turned out perfect!! I tried another BFC recipe a few months ago and it turned out ok. I was going to use it again for my mother in laws bday cake, but when I saw Natasha had a recipe I knew I had to try hers instead. It worked perfectly. I read the reviews on here first and did decide to sub the top cherries for marchino cherries. It was wonderful!! I am not sure what the person who gave the bad review did. I had none of those problems stated and normally if something can go wrong, it will go wrong with me. But this receipt was great. Thank you.
Hi Eva! Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I’m so glad you tried and liked this recipe.
Do not be fooled by the reviews. Cake came out flat and rubbery despite following the instructions. Had to start from scratch. You’re better off following a regular chocolate cake recipe
Hi Cosey! I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the recipe. We’ve had excellent results with this recipe, and so have others. A dense and rubbery sponge is likely due to the batter being deflated. This type of sponge cake relies heavily on the eggs for volume. If you did not get the right consistency with the eggs, your layers will be flat and rubbery. It’s also very important not to overmix the batter. Make sure your oven is fully preheated and ready to bake the cake right away.
Well I tried to make this for my German husband’s bday als the cake bases came out totally rubbery. I don’t have an egg beater or mixer so I used my stick blender and the eggs never became fluffy. I imagine I over blended them? I didn’t use it for the flour, but folded it in instead. I also didn’t immediately bake as I didn’t read through until then that that needed to be done so of course they were deflated. I’m not a baker, but the frosting was crazy yummy! The batter pre rubber as well. I will try again. Any tips? Maybe wisk attachment for the stick blender?
Hi Jasmine. You can try the whisk attachment on the stick blender but it’s very important to get the right consistency with the eggs. This is where the cake gets the it’s texture and volume. Missing this will result in a flat and rubbery or dense cake.
Made this today! Was AMAZING! Thank you for sharing this recipe. Just a question, can you tell me the weight of the cake?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I was not able to weigh the cake but I wish I did!
My mother-in-law is from Germany. We recently took her on a trip back to her home town for her 80th birthday and all she talked about was German Black Forest cake. While we were there she looked in many bakeries and was unable to find the cake.
I was determined to find a recipe and make this for her and today I surprised her with it.
She was so surprised and said it tasted like what she enjoyed while growing up in Germany many years ago. I used fresh cherries on the top and her only comment was in Germany they use maraschino cherries on the top.
I followed your recipe as written and, while it took me 3-4 hours, her face was worth the effort.
Thank you so much for all the tips (especially placing my mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer). I made sure my eggs were at room temperature and my melted butter cooled back off to room temperature as well.
Now what recipes do you have to use the leftover kirsch? 🙂
Hi Sherri! That’s wonderful to hear. Thank you so much for trying my recipe. I’m glad it was a hit! I appreciate the feedback.