Growing up, Eric always had a Black Forest Cake from Safeway as his birthday cake and still has great fondness for this traditional dessert. Flipping through Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine: Desserts & Pastries (which was a Christmas present from Eric), I found his Forêt Noire version and decided to create a similar version, using chocolate biscuit and dark chocolate mousse recipes from my own collection. The entremet would have appeared more "finished" if I had a chocolate sprayer and fresh cherries; however, my chocolate decorations (to represent an abstract forest) did suffice.
Starting from the bottom, the layers are: chocolate biscuit, cherry compote, dark chocolate mousse, 2nd chocolate biscuit, kirsch cream, more dark chocolate mousse, 3rd chocolate biscuit, more dark chocolate mousse. Both the compote and kirsch cream layers were assembled as frozen inserts. Even though cherry and chocolate are not usually my taste, it made a lovely entremet which we enjoyed with kir royale. No offense to Safeway, but this version was definitely more palatable!
This looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteIs the chocolate biscuit, that you reference in the list of layers, a simple cake batter? Or, what is it?
Thanks! Yes, the chocolate biscuit is a very light thin sponge cake layer which is meringue based.
ReplyDeleteMMMMMMMM!! Your cake looks fantastic. I love Black Forest and it was Dad's favorite too!!
ReplyDeleteEric is very lucky :)
I am really looking forward to reading more of your blog
Cuz Lila
looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cake. You are SO talented!
ReplyDeleteThe safeway black forest cake was my traditional birthday cake as well. It tastes infintely better if it's special ordered with real whipping cream, the price almost doubles but it's worth it.