Double Chocolate Black Forest Cake

Black forest cake is originally called black forest gateau, black forest cherry torte or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. There’s a dark forest in southern Germany, where Schwarzwälder Kirsch, a specialty liquor, is distilled from sour cherries (morello cherries) and used to make this cake.

Black forest cake is originally made with chocolate sponge cake, whipped cream, liquor and cherries. Some people use tart cherries and some people use maraschino cherries, I prefer fresh black cherries! 

My double chocolate black forest cake is made up of velvety chocolate cake layered with chocolate diplomat cream, black cherry bourbon preserves and fresh black cherries.

How to make double chocolate black forest cake?

1. Chocolate Cake – three layers of velvety buttermilk chocolate cake.
2. Cherry Filling – super simple cherry preserves made with fresh or frozen cherries and a splash of bourbon.
3. Chocolate Cream – I used my mom’s version of a diplomat cream because it’s my fav and added a little cocoa powder to it.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Flour: I use all-purpose flour and instead of sifting it, I just whisk it with the rest of my dry ingredients.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder: I used dutch process cocoa powder but you can also use natural cocoa powder, just make sure it’s unsweetened.  
• Eggs: The diplomat cream uses just egg yolks and I have a ton of recipes that you can use the egg whites for below.
• Buttermilk: You can substitute the buttermilk with dairy free milk or water plus 1 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice. 
• Brewed coffee: coffee is optional and can be replaced with water.
• Cherries: I used fresh black cherries. Frozen cherries would also be fine to make the preserves.
• Bourbon or Kirsch: I used bourbon to make this recipe a little fun but Kirsch would be more traditional. You can also skip this altogether if you want.
• Cool Whip: I used cool whip in this recipe but you could also make your own whipping cream at home. I would recommend following my diplomat cream recipe for that version 🙂

Chocolate Cake

This is a basic chocolate cake recipe. It requires all the usual ingredients but it is a very forgiving cake so if you need to make any substitutions, it will most likely work! Here are some details for what I use.

Chocolate Diplomat Cream

I’m sure the majority of you have never made or even tasted diplomat cream but it is, by far, my favorite cream in terms of taste AND texture. It’s made out of custard and whipped cream so it’s super light and fluffy. It’s not great for decorating cakes but it’s perfect for replacing the whipped cream in this double chocolate black forest gateau. 

If you really like this diplomat cream, try this heavenly chocolate mousse cake or this honey lemon cake!

Cherry Preserves

You can make your cherry preserves as chunky or smooth as you’d like with help of an emulsion blender. I left mine pretty chunky like cherry pie filling but you can turn it into more of a cherry syrup if you don’t like the large chunks. 

How To Frost This Cake

If you want to decorate the cake, it may be a little difficult to do it with this cream because it’s so soft. You can lightly frost it like I did, after refrigerating (or freezing) it for a little if necessary, until it’s more sturdy. 

If you want to actually frost it nice and decorate the outside of this cake you’ll have to pipe a border of buttercream around the edge of the first layer of cake and then use the dulce de leche frosting as the filling. You can see how I did that for my cranberry orange cake. 

I recommend a Swiss Meringue buttercream for decorating but American buttercream also works fine. 

Make sure to check out my cookbook Frosted for a million frosting options and how to use them! I also have an ebook, Frosted 2.0, that shows step-by-step photos of all the types of frostings in the cookbook. You can download that below. 

What To Do With All The Egg Whites

The best part about egg whites is that you can place them in an airtight container and freeze them. I’ve frozen them for weeks/months and made Swiss meringue buttercream with it just fine.

You can certainly just make something simple like an egg white omelette but here are some other fun recipes you can use egg whites in.

• Egg White Cookies – these cookies are my favorite way to use up egg whites. 1 batch uses 2 but you can double or triple if serving a crowd or freeze the cookie dough.
• Chantilly Cake – uses a lot of egg whites but you can use carton pasteurized egg whites for this so just through them all in together and weigh the total amount.
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream – 1 batch uses four egg whites but you can make more or less and freeze the finished buttercream as well and just thaw when you need to decorate a cake!
• Pistachio Cake – uses a lot of egg whites in the cake and the frosting.
• Macarons – 1 batch uses 4 egg whites.

How to make the cake ahead of time

To make the cake ahead of time you can make the cakes the day before and leave them covered overnight on the counter or even a month in advance. When you remove them from the oven, let them cool for about half an hour and then wrap them individually  in plastic wrap. Then place them in a freezer bag, squeezing out all the excess air. 

I like to pull the frozen cakes out of the freezer about 30 minutes before frosting. Frosting frozen cakes with diplomat will make it easier since the cream is so soft.

For the diplomat cream, make the custard part 1-2 days ahead and then mix it with the cool whip fresh before frosting. If it’s stiff, whisk it a little before adding the cream.

The cherry preserves can be a few days ahead of time and just stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Storing

You have to refrigerate this cake. You can leave it at room temperature for a couple hours while serving it. But since diplomat cream is made out of whipped cream, I highly suggest several hours of refrigeration time after assembling it.

Make sure to keep any open slices covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container after slicing. The cream and cake freeze well separately but I personally don’t like to freeze anything with fruit. 

If you have any questions about this gorgeous double chocolate black forest gateau, just shoot them my way down below. If you happen to make this layer cake, I would love if you left me a review or star rating!

As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!

Love, B

Recipes

Layer Cakes

Double Chocolate Black Forest Cake Recipe

4.48 from 78 votes

prep 45 minutes mins

cook 40 minutes mins

Additional Time 4 hours hrs

total 5 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Serves 12 -18 servings

Black forest cake is a moist chocolate cake frosted with a whipped chocolate diplomat cream, boozy cherry sauce and fresh cherries on top!

Author: Bernice Baran

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Servings 12 -18 servings

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Ingredients

Chocolate Diplomat Cream

• ▢ 3 large egg yolks, room temperature
• ▢ 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/8 cup (20g) Dutch-process cocoa powder, spooned and leveled
• ▢ 1/2 cup (113g) salted or unsalted butter
• ▢ 8 oz (227g) cool whip
• ▢ 1/2 Tbsp (7mL) vanilla bean paste or extract

Cherry Preserves

• ▢ 3/4 lb fresh cherries, chopped
• ▢ 1/2 cup (100g) powdered sugar, spooned and leveled
• ▢ 2 Tbsp (60mL) lemon juice
• ▢ 1 Tbsp (8g) cornstarch
• ▢ 1-2 Tbsp (30-60mL) bourbon or kirsch

Chocolate Cake

• ▢ 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup (80g) unsweetened cocoa powder, spooned and leveled
• ▢ 2 tsp (10g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ tsp espresso powder, *optional
• ▢ ½ tsp salt
• ▢ 2 large eggs, room temperature
• ▢ 3/4 cup (177mL) canola oil
• ▢ 3/4 cup (177mL) buttermilk
• ▢ 3/4 cup (177mL) brewed coffee
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

• ▢ 1/4 lb fresh cherries, whole

Method

Chocolate Diplomat Cream 

1. Begin by making the pastry cream for the Diplomat cream the night before or at least a few hours before frosting the cake, so it has time to cool.
2. In a small saucepan, over low heat, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, cocoa powder and butter. Allow them to melt and cook while whisking continuously for about 10 minutes. 
   3 large egg yolks room temperature, 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar, 1/8 cup (20g) Dutch-process cocoa powder spooned and leveled, 1/2 cup (113g) salted or unsalted butter
3. Once the custard gets the consistency of lemon curd, remove it from the heat and pour it into a separate bowl.
4. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and allow it to cool to room temperature. 

Cherry Preserves

1. Remove the pit and chop the cherries into quarters. Place them in a medium saucepan over medium heat with the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Allow them to simmer until they soften. 
   3/4 lb fresh cherries chopped, 1/2 cup (100g) powdered sugar spooned and leveled, 2 Tbsp (60mL) lemon juice
2. Remove 2 Tbsp of the juice from the pan and mix it in a small separate bowl with the cornstarch.
   1 Tbsp (8g) cornstarch
3. Add the cornstarch mixture to the cherries and allow everything to simmer over low-medium heat for a few minutes. 
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the bourbon or kirsch.
   1-2 Tbsp (30-60mL) bourbon or kirsch
5. You can either leave the cherry sauce chunky, or you can use an emulsion blender to make it into a smooth sauce. Allow it to cool completely while baking the cake. 

Chocolate Cake

1. To make the chocolate cake, preheat the oven to 3350/177C convection (or 325F/162C conventional) and grease and line the base of three 6-inch cake pans or two 8 inch cake pans. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, espresso powder and salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.
   2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar, 1 cup (80g) unsweetened cocoa powder spooned and leveled, 2 tsp (10g) baking soda, ½ tsp espresso powder *optional, ½ tsp salt
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla extract until they’re well combined.
   2 large eggs room temperature, 3/4 cup (177mL) canola oil, 3/4 cup (177mL) buttermilk, 3/4 cup (177mL) brewed coffee, 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and fold them together just until the last streak of flour is combined. 
5. Distribute the batter evenly among the prepared cake pans (about 16oz each for three 6-inch pan or 24oz each for two 8 inch pans).
6. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when it's poked or a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the pan and allow them to cool completely. 

Assemble

1. Once the custard for the diplomat cream has cooled, use an electric mixer to beat it on medium-high speed with the cool whip and the vanilla, just until they're combined. 
   8 oz (227g) cool whip, 1/2 Tbsp (7mL) vanilla bean paste or extract
2. Place the bottom layer of cake on flat surface. Top with ⅓ of the chocolate diplomat cream and a layer of cherry preserves. Repeat with the second layer. 
3. For the third layer, top with the rest of the chocolate cream and fresh, whole cherries. Place it in the refrigerator immediately so it can set for at least 30 minutes to an hour.  
   1/4 lb fresh cherries whole

Notes

Refrigerate the cake to store and cover any open slices with plastic wrap.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 296kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 5gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 227mgFiber: 2gSugar: 17g

Course: Cakes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: black forest cake, cherry preserves, chocolate cake, chocolate cherry cake, chocolate frosting, diplomat cream, double chocolate cake