baking spirits bright
BLACK FOREST CAKE ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DISPLAY CASE VIEW: A multi-tiered chocolate sponge cake with layers of fluffy whipped cream and boozy cherries decorated with puffs of whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and maraschino cherries. ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT THE SWEET STORY: With a Victorian gothic color palette of deep ember, moody burgundy, and wispy white, it comes as no surprise that Black Forest cake — also called the Black Forest gateau — hails from a region of Southwestern Germany rich in lush woodlands and folklore galore. But despite what one might think, the
cake isn’t named for the region itself, but for a sweet-tart cherry liqueur called Kirschwasser (“cherry water” in German, sometimes called kirsch) that’s made by distilling morello cherries, a cousin to the sour cherry, twice, using a complete (stones and all) fermentation process. For a Black Forest cake to have “official” status in the eyes of the German government, this liquored-up cherry extract and the fruit it’s made from must be used. As the cake has been exported around the world, everything from rumsoaked cherries to cherry preserves have taken the place of this often hard-to-find ingredient. Like most historic desserts, there’s quite a bit of debate about its origin. By the mid-1800s, Kirschwasser was widely produced across the Black Forest region, and the fermented cherries often found their way into — or spooned atop — cakes. But in 1915, the most widely held account is that pastry chef Josef Keller created the original Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte (“Black Forest cherry torte”) at a café just outside of Bonn, then passed along the recipe
to apprentice August Schaefer, whose descendants have long laid claim to the “original” Black Forest cake at their restaurant in Triberg. Due to its fairytalelike appearance and locally sourced kirsch-spiked decadence, the cake was widely recreated and reimagined as a dessert across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by the 1930s, and then saw a resurgence as a European dinner party favorite in the 1970s. An annual festival in Todtnauberg celebrating the cake allows amateurs and experts alike to show off new innovations in Black Forest gateaumaking each year. (Once, a version made inside a tin can stole the show.) The festival also spotlights an odd cultural coincidence. The bollenhut is a traditional women’s hat from the region, comprising a flat piece of felt, large pompoms, and a ribbon for tying the hat under one’s chin. The red pompoms worn by young, unmarried girls closely resemble the cherries on top of a Black Forest cake, while married women wear hats with black pompoms. The mystery remains whether the hats are an W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 7
