The tall cake made vegetarian - Black Forest Gateau

I am fussy when it comes to the Black Forest. No, not the region in Germany (where I'd happily love to go trekking), but the mighty gateau named after it.

Let's face it. The one thing I repeat on my blog seems to be this cake. An eggless version too (but there's not much by way of reading there - I had a way with words back then eh?). It's easy enough to make an eggless chocolate cake from those boxed mixes to get dreamy results, but if you are going that way, you may not want to read the ingredient list. I studied chemistry for some time, and even I can't pronounce the names on those lists.

So when I wanted to take a cake for 30 people, I had to make sure that everybody could eat it, which is why the eggless version came about. To tell you the truth, I was more interested in getting the look of it right - Black Forest isn't Black forest if it looks like this no matter how good it tastes. When I decided I wanted 4 layers (four layers?!?! Yes, I wanted a TALL cake) I turned to the trusty Tarla Dalal to give  me a good eggless chocolate cake recipe; something sturdy enough to hold layers of cream and cherries  and something with just the right amount of chocolate flavour. Although I think my cake was a tad dry (but then all sponge cakes are - so you need to seriously soak the layers with syrup) the cake was a really good base for the rum, the cream and the cherries. The layers alo held on, and the layers were visible with every slice.


Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

Adapted From Tarla Dalal

Makes one 20 cm cake - you can make 2 or a maximum of 3 layers (if you can cut it that thin) with this one recipe.

You need -

1 cup plain flour (maida)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp soda bi-carb
3/4 cup condensed milk
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp levelled baking powder
4 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make the cake -

1.Preheat the oven to 180º C.Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Sieve the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda bi-carb together and set aside.

2.In a bowl, combine the condensed milk, melted butter, vanilla and water  beat well using an electric mixer or a balloon whisk.

 

3.Add the dry ingredients t the liquid batter and mix gently with help of a spatula. The batter should be of a dropping consistency.

4.Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till done. The cake is ready when it leaves the sides of the tin and is springy to touch.

7. Remove the cake from the tin, and leave to cool completely.

For the icing-

(For a four layerd cake)

500 ml whipping cream (sweetened or unsweetened)
1 tbsp rum (optional)
200 gm caster sugar (if using unsweetened cream)
1 large can of tinned cherries - drained, pitted and cut in half (and leave a few for decoration)
1 cup syrup, drained from the cherries
1/4 cup rum, optional

To frost the cake-

1. Whip the cream until it is light, fluffy and holds its shape.

2. Depending on the number of layers you want to make, cut the cake horizontally. I had four layers and two cakes, so I cut the two cakes into half.

3. Take one of the cake halves and lay them flat side down (cut side up) on a foil covered cardboard / cake base. Brush this layer generously with the syrup and the rum (if using) until the cake layer is nicely soaked and moist.

4. Dollop and spread 1/4 th of the cream on the cake with a metal spatula. Also cover the sides.

 

5. Spread 1/3 of the halved cherries on the cream. Repeat this process until you have finished all the cake layers.

 

 

6. Spread 1/2 of th remaining cream on the cake and even it out. Chill in the fridge of at least an hour before icing completely.

 

7. Put all the remaining icing in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe all over the cake. Decorate it with shaved chocolate/ grated chocolate simple chocolate chips will also work.