10 replies to this topic

[audrey551]

Good Afternoon. I am looking for an original German Black Forest Cake with the cookie bottom, sour cherries etc. Does anyone have a recipe for this. I have lots of cookbooks but cannot find one with the cookie on the bottom. I need to make this for a gentleman for his birthday. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.

[ludja]

Interesting; I haven't seen a recipe with a cookie bottom; only with chocolate cake layers... When you say "cookie" do you mean some crunchy type of chocolate cooke or tart?

Here is a previous topic on Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake): click

Two recipes mentioned there:

recipe from the Time Life Series "The Cooking of Germany" (three layer chocolate cake, layers brushed with kirsch syrup, filled and frosted with sweetened whipped cream with kirsch, sour cherries in between layers, chocolate shavings on the side)

recipe from Pierre Herme's "Chocolate Desserts" by Dorie Greenspan this is a modern adaptation and is described futher in the thread.

Swisskaese also gives a link similar to that from her uncle's bakery in Germany; I believe that is also cake-based.

I'm curious to hear more about this "cookie" version assuming it's not just a translation blip.

By the way, welcome to egullet, audrey551!

[ludja]

Here's some more background on Black Forest Cake from wiki: click

The earliest combination in the Black Forest of cherries, cream and Kirschwasser was probably not in the form of a cake but instead as a dessert. Cooked cherries would be served with cream and perhaps Kirschwasser. A cake combining cherries, biscuit and cream (but without Kirschwasser) probably originated in Switzerland. Today, the Canton of Zug is world-renowned for its Zuger Kirschtorte, which is a biscuit-based cake formerly oozing with Kirschwasser. A version from the Canton of Basle also exists. The confectioner Josef Keller claims to have invented Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in its present form in 1915 in the then prominent Café Agner in Bad Godesberg. This claim, however, has never been substantiated.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was first mentioned in writing in 1934 (250 Konditorei-Spezialitäten und wie sie entstehen, J.M. Erich Weber, Dresden 1934). At this time it was known especially in Berlin as well as at good confectioners in German, Austrian and Swiss cities. In 1949 it took 13th place in the list of best-known German cakes. From this time onwards, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte became world-renowned.

I've seen recipes for the Swiss "Zuger Kirschtorte". The cake has meringue/almond layers in addition to spongecake layers but there is no chocolate involved in the cake or frosting and also no fresh cherries. Rather kirsch is used in a syrup to brush on the cake layers and in the buttercream.

[panini]

Audrey,
I might be repeating someone, didn't have time to read.
You can use a simple pate brisee. Blind bake and use a rasp jam so the cake layer stickes to it. Then build as usual.
pan
I have also made it with a japonaise type bottom

Edited by panini, 01 May 2007 - 01:57 PM.

[audrey551]

Audrey,
I might be repeating someone, didn't have time to read.
You can use a simple pate brisee. Blind bake and use a rasp jam so the cake layer stickes to it. Then build as usual.
pan
I have also made it with a japonaise type bottom

The pate brisee would work but I need to make it chocolate. Would you happen to have a recipe which would include cocoa?

[panini]

The pate brisee would work but I need to make it chocolate. Would you happen to have a recipe which would include cocoa?

[/quote]

Audrey,
My formulas are large and I doon't do a chocolate one. It's a matter of substituting cocoa for some of the flour.
say
2 1/2 cups flour
tsp. salt
cup of butter
1/4 ice water
sub.
maybe 1/4 cup of cocoa and 2 1/4 flour sifted
It's a matter of taste. Myself, I would go with the regular and rasp. for not only a flavor contrast but color also
p

[miladyinsanity]

I use Claudia Fleming's chocolate tart dough recipe:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

[ludja]

So intereesting to hear about using a cookie/tart crust layer as what appears to be a base layer with this cake. As audrey551 mentioned in her first post I've never seen this in any cookbooks (some in German).

Can anyone shed any light on the practice? Are these versions in German cookbooks and/or is this an older version of the cake that people know about from speaking with Germans? An American variation? Thanks in advance for sharing information on this!

[MaxH]

So intereesting to hear about using a cookie/tart crust layer as what appears to be a base layer with this cake.  As audrey551 mentioned in her first post I've never seen this in any cookbooks (some in German).

Ditto Mimi Sheraton's 1965 German cookbook; some other modern books I checked from Germany don't even include this type of cake.

It's novel to me too, and sounds like an interesting bit of culinary information. (The more standard version Ludja cites was a favorite cake in my home on occasions when I was growing up.)

FYI my experience with these cakes is completely, or almost completely, in the US (and they were more common, in my region anyway, before about 1970) but always a specific format -- cherries, chocolate cake layers, whipped cream, chocolate shavings. You can still order them from good bakers today, but they stress that this cake doesn't keep long, with all that whipped cream.

[audrey551]

I knew I had a recipe in my library somewhere lol. Okay here it is: It is in Oetker German Home Baking. It calls for a Pastry: Sponge mixture: Filling etc. If anyone is interested in the recipe I would be happy to send it to you via email (quite long so therefore would scan and email. I have it either in English or German.

[Swisskaese]

The pate brisee or Muerbeteigboden is used as a base for the cake. You can smear cherry jam on it and then place the chocolate spongecake on top. This is not mandatory and is mostly done by professional bakeries and restaurants to keep the sponge cake from becoming soggy, since they do not always serve the cake immediately after they prepare it.

It is not used as a substitute for the chocolate spongecake! The pate brisee is just a normal one, not chocolate.

Edited by Swisskaese, 03 May 2007 - 05:49 AM.