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Schwarzwald Torte – Black Forest Cake

As we say goodbye to Oktoberfest, I feel compelled to share one of my mother’s most treasured recipes. Treasured by those of us who love to eat it, anyway! The good news for my readers is, it’s a semi-homemade recipe for Black Forest cake. With just a little patience, pretty much anybody can make this cake. There are fancier, more involved recipes out there… but this is my Mom’s. And she’s German. So those of you who know Germans know… You’d better put their recipes out there *their* way!

Start by baking one chocolate (or German chocolate) Duncan Hines cake mix in round pans, according to directions. Add 1 tsp. kirschwasser (german cherry brandy) to the mix before baking.

Let cake cool, then slice each cake layer horizontally. This will leave you with four thin layers of chocolate cake.

Ingredients for cake assembly:

1 large container Cool Whip (personally I think Cool Whip is sacrilege, but nobody seems to want to whip up their own whipped cream so I grudgingly concede)
1 tsp. kirschwasser
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can sweet dark cherries, drained

Mix the cherry pie filling, drained sweet dark cherries and kirschwasser. Between both split layers, spread some whipped cream, then some of the cherry filling. To assemble these two layers, spread a layer of whipped cream and stack the two layers that you’ve sandwiched with the cherry filling. Reserve some of the cherry filling for the top of the cake (see photo).

Finish frosting the cake with whipped cream, then top with remaining cherry filling. A WORD OF CAUTION: The whipped cream can be tricky… meaning, the layers can tend to slide without warning. I don’t know how many German swear words I’ve heard because the cake layers “slid.” If you are at all concerned about that, I would utilize a couple of cake dowels.

Note: You can use a tablespoon of kirschwasser but it will give your cake a strong flavor. I strongly recommend using 1 tsp. to begin with and increase the amount in your next cake if you feel you want more cherry brandy flavor.