In my family, I’m the designated baker. I make all the birthday cakes and all of the holiday desserts. But I refuse to make fruity desserts, as I simply don’t make things I wouldn’t want to eat. This mostly includes fruit pies like cherry and rhubarb, but also other desserts like lemon squares and fruitcake. 

Luckily, I can handle this cake despite it tasting heavily like cherries. I normally despise cherries for their tart flavor and small pit that make eating one incredibly laborious. However, with black forest cake, the freshness of the berry combined with the sweetness of the cake overpowers any hostility I harbor towards fruity desserts. 

In my family, this cake is enjoyed after dinner, during a game of Huckle Buckle Beanstalk. We only play when my family is all together during the holidays, or when we are up visiting relatives in the Santa Fe mountains.

The rules of Huckle Buckle Beanstalk are simple: one person hides five or so objects in plain sight and the other players look for all the objects without touching the object or saying if they found them. When one player finds all the objects they say “Huckle Buckle Beanstalk!” and show the hider where all the objects are. If they successfully locate all of them then they are the next person to hide the objects.

This gets extremely competitive in my family, and it’s anxiety-inducing just trying to find all the objects before someone says “Huckle Buckle Beanstalk.” If someone hides an object that might not be considered “plain sight,” an argument inevitably ensues. There’s also an argument when someone who wants to hide the objects doesn’t win and starts an argument about how it’s their turn and how they deserve a chance.

Luckily for me, making this cake is a lot easier than a game of Huckle Buckle Beanstalk. The batter is painless to make. In the instructions, it says to use a stand mixer, but if you don’t have one, a whisk or a hand mixer works great. The recipe also calls for fresh cherries, but cherries are out of season in the winter, so if you use canned or frozen cherries, the cake will have the same great taste. 

My final tip is if you want the cake to be able to sit outside or at room temperature for long periods you need to stabilize the whipped cream or else it will melt. You can add cornstarch, cream cheese, bloomed gelatin, cream of tartar or any other thickening ingredients to stabilize the whipped cream. It just depends on what you have on hand. 

My whole family loves this cake and it reminds me of the holidays and spending time with family. Whether that is sitting by the fire or arguing about Huckle Buckle Beanstalk, this cake is what makes those memories so sweet.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake:

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 cup hot water or hot coffee
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Cherry Liqueur Syrup:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup cherry liqueur

Whipped Cream Frosting:

• 3 cups whipping cream, cold
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Chocolate Bark:

• 250 g dark chocolate, chopped

Toppings:

• 2 1/2 cups cherries, pitted and cut in half
• 1 bar dark chocolate for shavings (optional)

Instructions

Chocolate Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F, grease two 8″ round baking pans and line bottoms with parchment
2. Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; stir to combine
3. In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients but pour the hot water in slowly so as not to cook the eggs
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for two to three minutes. The batter will be very thin
5. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean
6. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely

Cherry Liqueur Syrup:

1. Place sugar and water into a small pot
2. Stir and bring to a boil
3. Simmer for 1 minute then remove from heat
4. Stir in cherry liqueur and allow to cool completely

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. Whip cream and powdered sugar together until the mixture forms stiff peaks
2. Add stabilizer of choice (optional)

Chocolate Bark:

1. Melt dark chocolate in microwave or on stove