This was a cake, that really took the cake! Reason? My son baked it.

From scratch.

I was the assistant. I was bringing him things, cleaning up after he left, greasing the pans, heating the oven…taking care of all the side jobs while the master chef was sieving, measuring, mixing, and making the cake.

It indeed felt proud to have a kid of 7 showing so much of interest in baking :-).

This cake is from Sapana of Cooking with Sapana for her baby shower. It’s based on her version of black forest cake. I realized only half way through that I was short on cherries and other required stuff.

So in a nut shell, this is a chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting and decorated with grated chocolate and cherries and plum. I don’t think that’s too far from the local bakery’s definition of black forest cake :D.

Assembling the cake:

• One chocolate cake (cake of your choice would do)
• Whipped cream
• Syrup : 1 cup water + 1 cup sugar boiled until the sugar melts. Use once it’s cooled down OR  1 cup apple juice + 1/4 cup powdered sugar mixed in
• Chocolate shavings
• Cherry compote for the filling ( I didn’t make this, but definitely the next time)
• Cherries / plum for decoration

Method:

1. Help your kid bake the cake :-). Once the cake is baked, press down dome very softly with a clean kitchen towel. Let it cool in the pan for ten minutes.
2. After that, take out the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
3. Beat the whipped cream until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.
4. Once the cake is cooled, transfer it to a cake board or a plate and put it in a turn table.
5. Carefully cut it into two, first turning the cake and marking with a knife from the sides and then slowly cutting through. Check this video on how to cut a cake using knife.
6. Place the top layer into a separate plate.Brush away the crumbs on both pieces.
7. Sprinkle some cooled sugar syrup on the lower cake layer, the one on the cake board. You can use your hands for sprinkling.
8. Now fill the cake with whipped cream and keep the top layer on top of the filling. If the top layer has a dome, you either trim it off or keep the top layer upside down, so that the dome sits on top of the bottom layer’s filling. You can try this only if the dome is not too big.
9. Sprinkle the sugar syrup on the top layer as well.
10. Now, bring the whipped cream from the fridge and frost the sides and top of the cake. It doesn’t have to be perfect since the top and the sides can be covered with chocolate shavings or even crumbled cake pieces. If you had cut the dome, you can crumble it and coat the sides.
11. Once the cake is covered with fresh cream, pipe designs in the border using whipped cream in a piping bag.
12. Fill the middle and sides with chocolate shavings or crumbled cake pieces. Decorate with cherries.
13. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.