Life Without Alu?: Bake the Chocolate sponges and Vanilla Fruit cake layers

The original recipe of Black Forest Gateau had four thin layers of chocolate sponges cut out of two thick sponges. I decided not to cut the sponges in halves because I wanted nice thick layers. I assembled the two layers and asked Debarshi if he was happy with the cake and he said he wanted something different. He asked me if it was possible to make another layer, a fruitcake layer. So, I baked a vanilla fruitcake layer filled with dried cherries. It turned out beautifully dense and absolutely delectable.

I started on the cake layers a day earlier because I wanted to do a grand decoration on the cake. The cake was to be coated in whipped cream topping and I wanted to add chocolate buttons and piping work to make it beautiful.

I believe that a kitchen which is being used regularly is always in a mess, even if you clean and arrange it a hundred times. This cake will also leave a mess of cocoa powder, flour and sugar but if you can just wait for half an hour, you will get two delicious, decadent and rich cake layers of Chocolate and a dense fruit packed layer of vanilla.

Now this may be my self taught baking knowledge talking, but I found baking the chocolate sponges very technical. Well it is a fancy cake and I was baking it for the first time so there were parts where I failed but I have to tell you, I did face a few challenges in the beginning but the rest came pretty easy.

My first two layers didn’t bake very good. They didn’t rise at all and so I had to re do them. The second time I followed the instructions step by step and sure enough I had missed a very small but important step. As I started assembling the cake, my confidence came back and the more we decorated the better it looked.

If you’re a Black Forest Gateau fan, I sure hope you will like this cake and if you’re not, I hope this recipe will convert you. Believe me the ones at the grocery stores do not do justice to this amazing cake.

If you have Netflix, I recommend watching Season 3 - Episode 1 of ‘Great British Baking Show Master class’. If you have any doubts after reading my directions, maybe Mary Berry’s video will help you.

All the best!

Ingredients for the Chocolate cake:

Eggs – 6, large
Sugar - ¾ cup
All Purpose Flour – 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons, sifted
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Baking Powder – 1 teaspoon
Cocoa Powder – ½ cup, sifted

Notes:

The original recipe asked for Caster Sugar, which I couldn’t find anywhere so I used white granulated sugar. I grinded the sugar slightly in my Nutri Bullet (milling blade) to have finer granules but if you do this step, be very careful because you can easily get sugar powder.
The original recipe also asked for Self-Raising Flour, which is basically just all purpose flour mixed with baking powder and salt. I had all these ingredients at home so instead of buying Self Raising Flour, I used my pantry items.

Others:

Round pans – 3 of 9 inches each
Non stick spray or butter to grease the pans

Let’s do some preparations:

Let’s cut the Parchment Paper. Place the Pan on the Parchment paper and draw a circle on the outer edge of the pan. Cut the circle and repeat twice for the other two pans.
Spray the pans with nonstick spray. Line the bottoms with the parchment paper rounds and spray them as well.
Measure all the ingredients.

Directions to bake the Chocolate sponges (stand mixer recommended):

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Break the Eggs in the mixer bowl.
Add to that the Sugar.
Attach the Whisk.
Whisk the Eggs and the Sugar till the mixture turns pale and reach ribbon stage which means when you lift the whisk the impression goes back quickly (the mixture should be thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted out of the bowl).

The mixture will rise to almost the highest marker of the mixer bowl.
Mix the Flour and Cocoa Powder together and sift them in small batches into the batter.
Fold it in gently (with a rubber spatula) so as not to knock out any air to ensure the sponge stays light and airy as possible. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl because unmixed flour will collect there.
Keep mixing the dry products into the batter till you have a smooth finish. Then divide the mixture equally into two of the prepared tins and do this very carefully. Do not drop the batter from a height. Keep it slow and near the pan.
Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the sponges are well risen and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Use a tooth pick to check if the cake has baked through, insert it in the center of the cake and if it comes clean, it is done.
Take out the cakes from the oven and leave them in their tins for about 10 minutes before turning out and leaving them to cool on a wire rack.

Tips:

My first attempt at baking these sponges went wrong at the dry products mixing phase. I accidentally dropped the entire flour into the egg mix. It immediately knocked out a lot of air. When I mixed it and baked it the layers came very thin and crumbly. So, I re-did the layers. This time I sifted small quantities of flour and cocoa into the egg mix and kept mixing it in the batter continuously. It helped me incorporate almost all the flour into it smoothly and the layers rose much better.
If you can see small flour pockets in your sponge that means the flour has not been mixed well in the wet mix.

Ingredients for the Vanilla Fruitcake:

Dry Products:

All Purpose Flour - ¾ cup and 2 tablespoons
Sugar - ¾ cup
Baking Soda - ¾ teaspoon
Baking Powder - ¾ teaspoon
Salt – ½ teaspoon
Dried Cherries – ¼ cup

Wet Products:

Water - ½ cup
Milk – ½ cup
Vegetable Oil – ¼ cup
Egg - 1 Large
Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

Let’s do some preparations:

Half an hour prior baking the cake, take out the egg from the fridge and keep it on your kitchen counter. We are doing this to bring the egg to the room temperature. This helps it to mix evenly with the other ingredients and also prevents any over mixing of the batter.
Cut the dried cherries into 3-4 pieces and coat them in a little flour.

Let’s bake the Cake:

Take a large bowl and sift all the dry products (All Purpose Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt).
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
If using a stand mixer, attach the beater, add all the dry products in the bowl and start the mixer on the lowest speed.
Now we will start adding the wet products one by one. Add the Egg, Milk, Vegetable Oil and the Vanilla Extract. Mix for about two minutes on medium speed.
Lower the speed and heat the half cup of water in the microwave on high for one minute. It should be boiling.
Add the boiling water into the prepared batter, make sure the speed is at its lowest.
The resultant batter will be thin, pour it into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cherry pieces on the batter evenly.
Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven.
Bake the cake for about 20-25 minutes and keep an eye on the color. I use a tooth pick to check if the center has been cooked. Very carefully insert the toothpick into the center and pull it out. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is ready, otherwise, cook for a couple more minutes and don’t forget to use the timer every time.
Wait for 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan (run a short knife around the edges to release the cake) and invert it on the cooling rack. This ensures the cake does not have a soggy bottom.
Peel the parchment paper.