Black Forest Cake for my Dad’s Birthday!

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Swiss Black Forest Cake | The Novice Housewife

All over US , people celebrate July 4th as Independence Day, but in our family it is celebrated as my dad’s birthday. And 18 years back for that very occasion I baked my first cake.

I was in 7th-8th grade then. We had just moved houses in Jodhpur, and two of my friends had come for a sleepover. After my parents had gone off to sleep, we girls decided that it would be a great idea to bake a cake for my dad. Of course, none of us had baked one before. Since we wanted it to be a surprise for both my parents, we decided not to ask for my mom’s help and were confident that we will manage. I had seen my mom bake a countless times before, but that was the only experience I had. I was not much of a kitchen person growing up. I was a bit of feminist and thought if my brother isn’t cooking I do not need to as well. But, I knew where her recipe book was and we took out one of the cake recipes I knew she used quite frequently.

Having hardly ever entered the kitchen for anything, I had no clue where she had kept most of the ingredients and had no luck finding the all purpose flour. I did find the can with whole wheat flour, and thought I will just bake the whole cake with whole wheat flour (those days whole wheat flour cakes weren’t a thing). We ended up with a pretty dense cake, thanks to the whole wheat flour. The taste wasn’t anything like what mom made. To amend our error we decided to frost it a lot. The frosting surprisingly saved the cake a bit. My dad did not mind it at all and my mom thought it was a very sweet gesture. In fact, today when I asked her if she remembered the cake, she said as far as she remembers it came out quite well and the frosting was really nice. She particularly remembered the frosting. So do I.

Swiss Black Forest Cake | The Novice Housewife

Somehow life made a full circle yesterday. 18 years back when I made my first cake on dad’s birthday, I had a dense, dry cake which to some extent the frosting saved. Yesterday I made a Black Forest cake (specially requested by my dad) that I have made a few times before with excellent results, but ended up screwing it up for my dad. As a result, I again served a dense, dry cake to my dad for his birthday which surprisingly was saved only because of the frosting. I did figure out what went wrong- I had oven issues, and an error on my part to blame, but lessons learnt nonetheless.

People still went for seconds, but having baked it before and having it not failed me any of those times, I was a little disappointed that the screw up happened with my dad’s birthday cake.

Swiss Black Forest Cake | The Novice Housewife

 

No matter how it tasted, my dad loved that I made him a cake. And I know for him its the thought that counts. And I know he is reading this post  (he reads all my posts), so I just want to tell him that I love him. Yes, there are times when he doesn’t understand me and times when I don’t understand him, and its ok because I know there is no other man who can love me the way he does. And I am so glad that I have him as a father- his personality, efficiency in work, knowledge, sensitivity to my mother’s needs, thoughtfulness has shaped me and my brother to what we are today. And for that both my brother and I will always be grateful.

We also have been spoilt a lot by my father. Every wish of ours has always been his command. We just have to utter the words and he tries his best to make sure that our work is done. And that’s why we have named him Super Papa. You want something done, you ask Papa. Yep, spoilt we are.

And now he is retiring. He turned 60 yesterday. And in a month he retires from the Indian Air Force. He has had a wonderful tenure (touch wood) and deserved every bit of success that has come his way. He worked hard, so that we could enjoy. With the help of my mom, he has made sure we had the best years growing up, and now I hope we can fill the the next chapter of his life with as much joy as he has been filling ours.

Happy 60th, Papa. Love you.

Swiss Black Forest Cake | The Novice Housewife

Click here for the Swiss Black Forest Cake recipe. 

And while we celebrated my dad’s birthday, I hope you all had a happy and fun 4th of July!

And,  if you are looking for some holiday food inspiration, head on over to Raise.com  (a platform to buy and sell gift cards) where they are featuring some of their favorite festive 4th of July recipes. I was contacted by Raise.com to participate in their July 4 Fun campaign.

Few recipes revisited

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While experimenting with new recipes, I am also going through my old recipes, updating them, if necessary, including a print recipe option and updating photographs as well along the way.

Though I share the updated recipes on facebook and sometimes on twitter (I am still getting used to tweeting, so am not that regular with twitter updates), I realised people who have subscribed to the blog via email, do not get notified of the updates.

So this post if for you guys. Also, a big thanks to all of  you for still sticking it out with me!

For the recipe, either click on the picture or on the link given in the description under the picture.

black forest cake

 If you are fan of black forest cake, then this is the recipe for you.

Moist chocolate genoise cake, with whipped cream and brandied cherries in between the chocolate layers!

Delish!!

bread

 This is an adaption of Heidi Swanson’s whole wheat bread recipe, and it is great.

I made it for the first time right after I got messages from people who saw my pictures on Facebook and congratulated me on getting pregnant (when I clearly was NOT!).

This bread is packed with whole wheat, wheat germ, flax seeds and thus great for you if you are on a diet.

Find the recipe here.

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 The last revisited recipe I am sharing today is a favorite of many: Pav Bhaji.

It is a popular Indian street side food with a thick potato based curry served with buttered, toasted bread.

SWISS BLACK FOREST CAKE

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Black Forest Cake is one of V’s favorite cake and for a long time he had been hinting that I should make one. Now, in India its a pretty popular cake and most people I know love it. Not me. I am not a fan and never was. I am the dark truffle cake kind of girl. Or the strawberry cheesecake girl but NOT the Black Forest Girl. So, when I decided to make this cake V and I had a deal – that he has the sole responsibility of finishing it and I won’t help. But, argghhh, my love for all things sweet- I don’t think I’ll be keeping my end of the deal. But, going by the cake, I think V is going to keep his end.

For the recipe, I took out the Cake Bible. Like the name suggests- its just that! If you love baking, this is one must-have book! Rose’s Swiss rendition of the Black Forest Cake is far lighter and more delicate than the original German one. Kirsch soaked cherries are sandwiched between two thin, light layers of liqueur moistened chocolate génoise to make the cake. (In true representation of myself, I goofed up and did not read Rose’s instruction to half the recipe for the génoise and ended up making the full recipe. Thus, instead of a two-layer cake I had a four layer cake, which was not too bad- kind of like the cake we get in Indian bakeries!)

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The whipped cream is barely sweet so in case you want a sweeter taste add more sugar. Rose also gives the option of using Super Stabilized Whipped Cream. While, the Real Old Fashioned Whipped Cream is lighter in texture, the cake cannot be held at room temperature for more than 15- 30 minutes. I took my chances because I did not have the required gelatin for the Super Stabilized one. Also the Real Old Fashioned Whipped Cream is great for people with access to only the low-fat cream (the 20 % kinds), as the method given results in a 40 % butterfat cream

The cake used has the light texture of a génoise but is more velvety and moist. An equivalent amount of chocolate is used instead of cocoa, but a special technique is employed to intensify the flavor. Before being added to the batter, the chocolate is cooked with water which releases its flavor. When chocolate is dissolved in water, the surrounding barrier of cocoa butter in chocolate dissolves and swells the cocoa particles until they rupture, unlocking the flavor components, thus getting a génoise in the flavor of your favorite bittersweet chocolate bar.

You can make the cake ahead, like I did. Refrigerate or freeze it, in case you don’t plan to make it within 5 days. I kept it at room temperature as I assembled the cake the next day. This was also my first stint at making rosettes (or actually any kind of piping). Lot of improvement is possible, but I think for a first time attempt it did not turn out too bad, watsay?! V loved the look and loved the cake. Hubby is happy, my stomach and thighs are not!
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*Update*:

This recipe was first tried on December 21st, 2010. I have made this recipe after that, and have updated the pictures as well. The pictures you see are the updated ones (only the one just below is from the original post), and though the recipe makes a four layer 9 inch cake, for the pictures I halved the recipe and made a 3 layer 6 inch cake. For just the two of us, halving the recipe works absolutely fine, since it makes a smaller cake.

*Second Update*:

I made this again for my dad’s birthday. I experienced a few problems and have learnt a few lessons and tricks to keep in mind from the mistakes I made.

Make sure you use sifted flour. Even before measuring it, sift it first, measure and sift it again over the beaten eggs 2-3 tbsp at a time. Use cake flour (making your own cake flour is given in the recipe).

To be on the safer side, you could also add a tsp of baking powder- classic genoise gets is rise only from beaten eggs, but if you are unsure of your folding skills, add a teaspoon of baking powder. 

Gently fold the flour in and try not to over mix. A balloon whisk works well to fold yet not deflate the mixture, you still need to make sure to be gentle.

Also before you mix in the chocolate mixture take about 1 cup of the batter and fold it to loosen the mixture and then add it to the rest of the beaten egg-flour mixture. This will make sure you don’t end up over-mixing the batter.

Also, be generous with your syrup. Everybody loves a moist cake. Poke the cake in places with a toothpick so that the cake soaks the syrup better.

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