Black Forest Misadventure

Black Cherries

Week from hell, Ladies and Gentlemen. Week. From. Hell. Whatever could go wrong last week, did. After finishing up a rather hellish day at work on Tuesday - first day back after the bank holiday etc. - I plopped exhausted into the car to drive home, hoping to beat the worst of the traffic. After driving for approximately two whole minutes, I heard a familiar whup-whup-whup sound and felt a slight drag on the car. Flat tyre. Wonderful. I sat there, stress levels building, waiting for assistance (yes yes, helpless female), knowing that Dublin's roads were quickly clogging up with the traffic I had hoped to miss. 

In an attempt to find a silver lining, I tried counting the good things about my little misadventure: it wasn't raining (which would snarl traffic up even more and would mean I'd get wet while my tyre was being changed); the lady mechanic arrived really quickly (clearly not all females are helpless in these matters); and I got to relax for half an hour (enforced stillness with no chores / projects / work to do). With time to breathe and none of the usual distractions, I decided to amuse myself by planning a new bake for this weekend.

Devilishly good chocolate muffin

And good thing I did too, as the week proceeded as it had begun. It descended painfully through Dante's nine circles of hell and reached its nadir on Friday afternoon, when Word decided to create it's own numbering format throughout the report I'd spent most of the day working on (and crucially, it wouldn't 'Undo' - why??!!). Cue two hours of (unpaid) overtime trying to get the report back to its original state. The only thing that helped was the thought of the (hopefully) delicious bake I had planned for Saturday.

It all began with the Black Forest Gateau I made a couple of weeks ago (recipe as promised below). After sending it off to meet its destiny, I had a bowl of black cherries left over - soaked in a reduced cherry syrup with a dash of fruity liqueur. Now, I could have eaten them with yoghurt and granola for breakfast (albeit a slightly naughty breakfast, given there was alcohol in the syrup) or even as a dessert with some creamy Greek Yoghurt or vanilla ice-cream and toasted coconut flakes. But I had other plans. Looking at the plump cherries glistening in the thick syrup and with memories of the lovely Black Forest fresh in my mind, I wondered if I could make something like that, but in miniature. A cupcake or muffin maybe. 

Chocolate had to be involved - dark and devilishly good - so my base would be a chocolate muffin. Cherries (obviously). Could I just mix the cherries through? Hmmm, not sure. Thinking of the black cherries in their luscious syrup brought me to cheesecake (I know, bit of a leap, but I do love a black cherry baked cheesecake), which led me straight to a chocolate chip muffin, with a cream cheese and black cherry swirl. 

Chocolate chip muffin with black cherry and cream cheese swirl

There was a bit of a palaver in the making of them. Not because they were tricky - couldn't be easier in fact - but because I was so tired on Saturday after The Week From Hell that I completely forgot to put sugar in the first batch (it seems I never learn my lesson about baking when tired). Thankfully I licked some cake batter off my finger (and quickly spat it out again) before they went into the oven or I would've been serving inedible muffins to No.1 Sister when I visited her later that day. As muffins are incredibly quick to rustle up (dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, mix them together and dollop into the muffin cases), it didn't take me long to get a new batch made and baked (recipe below). 

Fortune favours the brave and my instincts had not led me astray; the muffin sponge was light (the muffin mix only contains 75g butter in total) and perfectly chocolatey, but with a hint of decadence in the cheesecake, chunks of chocolate and juicy cherries. All in all, the ideal muffin with which to drink coffee, chat and wind down after a particularly hellish week. From Dante's Inferno to heavenly bliss - I really couldn't ask for anything more from a muffin, now could I?
Black Forest Gateau (original recipe from The Best of Baking Book 1978)
Ingredients

For the cake mixture

• 100 grams plain chocolate
• 100 grams butter (softened)
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 75 grams ground almonds
• 50 grams plain flour
• 50 grams cornflour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

For the filling and topping

• 450 ml double cream
• 850 grams black / morello cherries (canned, pitted and drained - save some for decoration) 
• 6 tablespoons chocolate curls (for decoration)
• chocolate vermicelli (or grated chocolate / chocolate shavings, for decoration)
• 1. Lightly grease three 18cm / 7in sandwich tins. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. 
  2. Melt the chocolate in a basin over a pan of simmering water. Cool. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, almonds, and melted chocolate. 
  3. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder onto the creamed mixture, and fold in, mixing well. 
  4. Turn into the sandwich tins and bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
  5.  Whip the cream until thick. Dry the cherries on absorbent paper. Sprinkle each cooled cake layer with 2 tbsp Kirsch if you have it. I never seem to, so I use Creme de Cassis (blackcurrant liquer with a dash of sweet sherry) and mix it with the reduced syrup from the tinned cherries: Simply strain the cherries, put the syrup in a pot, bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 mins. Put a third of it aside to brush / drizzle over  the sponges and then thicken the remainder with cornflour - Mix a tablespoon of cornflour in a little cold water and add to the cherry syrup, bring back to the boil to thicken. Once it has cooled, add the cherries back in and allow them to sit in the thick, glossy syrup, ready to go in and on the cake.
  6. Sandwich together with cherries and cream, sprinkling some grated chocolate in between each layer and leaving enough cream to spread over the top and sides of the cake. 
  7. Decorate with chocolate vermicelli or chocolate shavings around the sides of the cake and place cherries for decoration on top. 
  8. Finish off decorating the cake by placing the chocolate curls in the middle of cake. Note: You may require a little more double cream than the recipe states if you like a thicker layer of cream to cover a cake.
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  Chocolate Chip Muffins with a cream cheese and black cherry swirl

  Ingredients

  For the muffin mixture

  • 50 grams dark / milk chocolate chopped / chocolate chips
  • 75 grams butter (melted)
  • 150 ml milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs 
  • 150 grams caster sugar
  • 275 grams plain flour
  • 25 grams cocoa
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant espresso powder

• For the cream cheese and black cherry swirl

• 450g tin of black cherries (pitted)
• 150g cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  

• Method
• 1. Place paper cases in a 12-hole muffin tin. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan
  2. Strain the tinned cherries and make the cream cheese swirl by mixing together the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla.
  3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder and baking powder into a large bowl, then mix in the sugar. 
  4. Add the melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla to the dry ingredients, and fork it together until almost mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  5. Put a spoonful of the muffin mixture into each case, then add a spoonful of the cream cheese mix and a few cherries. Place another spoonful of the muffin mixture on top. The mixtures will 'swirl' as they bake.
  6. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 18 - 20 minutes, until well-risen and cooked. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.