Finally..... BlackForest Gâteaux

Good evening!

I have been promising it for a while and here it finally is . . . . .  BlackForest Gâteaux!!! I'm still very busy with work but thought it would be nice to have a break and do something that I actually enjoy :) unlike robotics haha.

Blackforest has been my all time favourite shop bought dessert since I was a child. I think it has everything a good pudding should have : Chocolate, Fruit, Jam and Cream. What more can you ask for? And with it being my favourite, when I caught the baking bug I just had to try making it :D. If you use Google to look for recipes, (which I do a lot of the time when I don't know how to start something off), they all seem quite complicated with lots of unnecessary ingredients. So what I have done is simplify it (as I do with most of my recipes) and I can PROMISE you it tastes just ask good if not better. 

I have baked this twice before, first for Luke's flat mates when they all moved in at the start of the final year and secondly for New Year's Eve at Luke's parents. I would loved to have baked this more but it is fairly time consuming and  quite expensive to do but VERY WORTH IT. To be warned before you start it is one of the most expensive bakes I have done. I think last time I made it the ingredients totaled about £12-£15 ish. (It does look really posh and professional in the end though, so its up to you whether it's worth it).

I have posted the RECIPE on the taskbar at the top of the page,  for those of you that want to give it a go. Lucy's changed the layout for me so they all can be accessed from a DROPDOWN MENU :D


 As a whole, the individual parts of the gâteaux are quite easy to do. It is the bringing together that is the fiddly part. The basic steps for those of you that want an idea are:

- Bake two 20 inch chocolate sponges and drizzle them in black cherry flavouring (this can be black cherry liqueur or a cheaper version with I use, the juice from a tin of black cherrys) and leave to stand. 

- Apply black cherry pie filling and whipped double cream to the first cake and sandwich the other on top.

- Cover the centre of top layer with black cherry pie filling and apply squirts of cream around the edge using an icing syringe or similar instrument.

- Make collar by melting chocolate and setting onto acetate or see through gift wrap (like what flowers come in) in a long collar shape.

-Wait five or ten minutes until the collar is mostly set and wrap around the cake. 

-Sprinkle with edible glitter and grated chocolate to finish.

-Leave in a cool place for the collar to set, then remove acetate.

I finished mine of with a sparkly ribbon and voila it looks as follows:

Blackforest Gâteaux

I made some extra cake mix and had some silver foil star-shaped cases that I got for Christmas from my lovely sister that I wanted to use. And I couldn't bake Luke's family a cake and shun my own haha so I made Mini Blackforest Stars :D. I followed the same process, drizzling the cakes in flavouring. I then cut them in half and filled with jam and cream then put back together in the cases and decorated on top, this was the result, they are sooo cute:

Mini Blackforest Stars

Anyway, I have finally got round to blogging about it and I do think it has been well worth the mention! <3 I am next hoping to make one for Dad in summer, I definitely recommend giving this a go as it gives such impressive results!!!!

My next blog should be about something St Patrick's day related :D I have seen a recipe that I want to give a go so will dig that out and I have lots of ideas going around in my head so until then!

Samantha Who (Loves to bake)