This recipe for Black Forest Cake, already an extravagant dessert, is even more spectacular with a cheesecake filling. Follow the easy directions and wow your family!
Black Forest Cake, called Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in Germany, is a decadent cake with layers of dark chocolate cake, rich whipped cream, and tart cherries. What makes a Black Forest Cake a Black Forest Cake is the sour cherry liqueur called Kirsch, but most Black Forest Cakes made in the US are made without the liqueur.
This variation of the Black Forest Cake is easy to follow and more simple to make than baking your own cake from scratch. It also uses almond extract in replace of the liqueur and cherry pie filling in place of the tart cherries traditionally used. It can be made with or without the cheesecake filling, but it is an extra nice surprise for guests and will make you look like a pro!
Black Forest Cake Recipe:
Cake Ingredients:
- 2 boxes of the most chocolate cake mix (try Duncan Hines’ triple chocolate fudge).
- Bake according to directions, but replace the water with strong coffee
- Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract to each mix
- Mix each box separately, or the cakes will not set right
Fillings:
- 2 cans cherry pie filling
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 2 cups of whipped cream
- 2 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon almond extract
(Or, replace cream cheese filling with 2 boxes of prepared no bake cheesecake filling OR cheese cake pudding! Just add the almond extract.)
Icing Ingredients:
- 1 large tub of whipped cream
- 2 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese
- 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
Garnishes:
- 1 jar hot fudge sauce
- 1/2 package of cooking chocolate (almond bark works well)
- 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions for Black Forest Cake:
- Bake the cakes and set them aside to cool. In one bowl, combine all the ingredients for the cream cheese filling and set in the refrigerator to keep cool. In another bowl, mix together the ingredients for the icing and refrigerate.
- Warm the hot fudge sauce for about a minute in the microwave. Then cut the almond bark or other chocolate into shavings and chunks for decoration. Grating some, shaving some, and cutting some into chunks makes for a very pretty presentation!
- Take three of the cakes, and one at a time, turn it upside down on a plate. With a fork, perforate the edges of the cake about ½ inch to the inside and ½ inch deep, then scoop out the cake within that area. This will leave a shallow “bowl” that will later be filled with cream cheese filling. Repeat this process with three layers, leaving the cake for the top layer whole. (If you’ve omitted the cheesecake filling, skip this section and leave all the cakes whole. If you do this, you can also just make one cake mix and slice the two layers in halves, creating four thin layers.)
- Place the first layer down, and fill it to the top with cream cheese filling. Then spoon ½ a can of cherry pie filling and drizzle hot fudge sauce over the cherries. Repeat this process with the next two layers, topping the cake with the last layer that was left whole.
- Ice the cake with the whipped cream icing. Save about ½ cup or so of the icing to pipe around the top of the cake later. If it is warm in the room, or if the icing is soft at this point, set the cake in the refrigerator to firm up.
- Garnish the sides of the cake by pressing the chopped nuts into the icing all around. In the top center of the cake, pour the last ½ can of cherry pie filling in a small circle. Pipe icing around the top edge of the cake. Drizzle chocolate syrup all over the top and sides of the cake, and then garnish the cake with grated chocolate, chocolate shavings, and chocolate chunks.
- This cake is best kept refrigerated and is even better when it has set over night before slicing. Enjoy!
