Black Forest Cake
Shippable (Pune only)
Growing up, I 'hated' black forest cake, as kids often do. It was THE most popular birthday cake of small town India back in the day but the ones I met usually involved a flavourless & dry chocolate sponge, a smattering of canned cherries and whipped something (definitely not cream).
But it's a combination that makes so much sense to me now. Some classics are classics for a reason. So we got to work fixing the parts that we don't like, creating an anti black forest, if you will. It starts with the cake and here we have a hefty, moist cake with a double dose of chocolate. Fresh seasonal cherries are hard to come by so instead we have a roasted black grape compote finished in balsamic vinegar & brown sugar. Raisiny, plump, tart and sweet, it works a treat. We finish the cake with two different creams. A simple white chocolate vanilla cream is used in the filling while the whole ensemble is covered in a tangy and light cream cheese frosting.
It's a cake that will work for people who like chocolate and for people who don't like a lot of it. Despite all the flavour heavy parts on this cake, it eats surprisingly light - an almost summery chocolate cake.