Black Forest Cake

Preparation

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- Melt the butter
- Boil the milk
- Sieve the powdered sugar
- Mix corn flour to powdered sugar & refrigerate
- Refrigerate fresh cream (overnight)
- Refrigerate electric beater probes, 2 steel utensils, dark chocolate
- Finely chop 25 g cherry
- Grease the cake tin / mould
- Cut baking paper in shape & stick inside the cake tin

Pre-heat kadai or pressure cooker

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- Take a pressure cooker or kadai
- Fill kadai or pressure cooker with 300-400 g salt
- Spread the salt uniformly
- Place a steel flat bowl over salt, so that top of bowl is above salt layer
- If using a pressure cooker, remove the gasket from pressure cooker lid
- Cover the lid of cooker or kadai (do not put pressure valve in cooker)
- Heat the kadai or pressure cooker on low flame for 10 mins

Making cake batter

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- Mix all purpose flour & cocoa powder
- Add baking soda & baking powder to the mix
- Mix the ingredients all & sieve
- Take melted butter in a bowl
- Add powdered sugar to the butter little by little & mix
- Make a creamy mixture with the help of hand or power beater
- Add egg 1 by 1 to the mixture & mix
- Add 2 tsp vanilla essence to the mixture & mix
- Separate the amount of mixture that will fit in cake tin. Keep the remaining aside
[Do not make batter of full quantity at one go, because you need to start baking as soon as batter is ready]
- Add flour & cocoa powder mix to the bater
- Mix with a hand beater. Make round rotation movement to mix. Rotation to be in same direction all the time.
[Rotating in same direction will avoid air bubbles from getting trapped inside the batter]
- Add little milk to make a thick but smooth free flowing batter
- Pour the batter in the cake mould

Baking the cakes

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- Place the cake mould inside the pre-heated cooker or kadai
- On low flame, bake the cake for 25-30 mins [depends on cake batter volume]
- Use a tooth pick to check whether cake baked completely. If baked, the toothpick will come out clean. If not baked completely, batter will stick on the toothpick.
- Allow the baked cakes to cool down
[Repeat the process for remaining bater]

Making syrup & cherry pulp

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- Heat a kadai on medium flame
- Add sugar & little water
- Stir till the sugar dissolves completely
- Leave part of this sugar syrup & pour the rest
- In the remaining syrup add chopped cherries
- Boil the cherries in sugar syrup for 3 minutes
- Turn off flame

Making whipped cream

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- Take 2 utensils (refrigerated earlier)
[One utensil should go inside the other]
- Take some ice-cubes in the bigger utensil
- Place the smaller utensil over the ice-cubes
- Take the thick solid cream portion from the top of the refrigerated fresh cream
[Discard the liquid at the bottom]
- Start beating the cream with a electric beater
[First the cream will looses its tightness & become liquid]
- After 10-20 mins (depending on cream quality), a thick cream texture will form.
- Add 1 tsp vanilla essence & half of icing sugar (mix of powdered sugar & corn flour)
- Beat for 2-3 mins
- Add the remaining icing sugar & beat till a thick whipped cream is formed.
[If ice melts out, add more ice cubes. Give the electric beater little break every 15 mins to avoid coil burnt]

Cake assembly & decoration

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- Take a cake turn table
- One by one, place the baked cake rounds on & slice out a thin layer from the top of the cake rounds to expose the soft core.
- Place a cake board on the turn table
- Add little whipped cream on it
- Place the biggest cake round (if the rounds are of different shapes) over the cream
- Sprinkle sugar syrup over the cake round. Use a brush to spread uniformly
- Spread whipped cream & make a thin layer of cream.
- Spread cherry pulp over the cream layer
- Place the next cake round over it.
- Sprinkle syrup over this round too.
[ If more cake rounds present, make cream layer, add cherry pulp & place the next round ]
- Cover the cake with whipped cream completely
- Make the cream surface smooth or pattern as per your liking
- Grate the dark chocolate
- Cover the cake with grated dark chocolate chips
- Decorate with whipped cream & cherries