Chocolate Cherry Kirsch Cake
Posted by Cupcake Kelly on Jul 21, 2015 in Cake, z | 2 comments
I’ve modeled this magical cake after the German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. I was doing research on Black Forest Cake and disappointingly the top recipes that came up (from the “biggest” blogs) were filled with cake mix, canned cherry pie filling and no Kirsch! Blasphemy! 
Now, there is nothing wrong with a boxed cake mix. I use them sometimes but it just seems not the right fit for a true classic European cake. I bought the new Peggy Porschen Love Layer Cakes (which I strongly recommend) and Alex immediately asked me if there was a recipe for Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. Sure enough there was. Peggy is German after all!
I put my own spin on the cake. I made a vegan cream cheese frosting and I made my own cherry jam (from this David Lebovitz recipe) instead of using canned or jarred cherries. In place of the juice from the jar of cherries I made Peggy’s simple sugar syrup to brush on top of the cakes.
I kept the outside of the cake semi naked since Alex doesn’t like too much frosting and topped the cake with glittery cherries and chocolate cake crumbs. I’ve included the recipe for real cream cheese frosting below because vegan cream cheese isn’t as tasty (in my opinion). 
I made the cherries glitter by rolling them straight from the fridge in edible gold glitter. They are for decoration only. I wouldn’t let my friends eat that much edible glitter at once.
Ingredients
150ml water
150g sugar
1 tbs vanilla
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
340g light brown sugar
100g plain chocolate
150ml milk
3 medium eggs
225g AP flour
2 1/4 tbs cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
250g cream cheese
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
625g powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbs vanilla
4 tbs Kirsch
cherries, for decorating
cherry jam, for filling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease and line 3 six inch cake tins. Put the butter and half the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time beating after each addition.
- Put the chocolate, rest of the sugar, milk and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally and remove from the heat. In a separate large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.Add to the butter mixture on low speed.
- Pour in the warm chocolate mixture on slow speed. Pour the batter between the prepared tins and bake 17-25 minutes.
- Let the cake rest for 10 minutes and brush with the vanilla syrup. Remove from the tin when slightly warm. Wrap and refrigerate overnight to let the syrup soak in.
- Make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add in 1/3 of the sugar at a time and beat until smooth. Add in the vanilla and kirsch.
- Trim the tops of the cake and layer with cherry jam and frosting. Spread a thin layer on the outside for a "naked" cake. Store in the refrigerator.
adapted from Peggy Porschen Love Layer Cakes
Hi Kelly,
Thank you for pure ingredients. I’ve never approved of cake mix, which often has chemicals and is always older than a freshly milled bag of flour. Convenience? Shmeeenience!!
Florence Ditlow
Thanks for share Kelly. It’s really really tasty