The "Black Forest Cake" tales

Each weekend, i will target to make a new type of cake. I'm greedy, i wanted to have a touch & feel of doing all the basic cakes around !! So for this afternoon (Sat), it was Black Forest Cake!! Such a simple & normal type I would say but gotta say wait till you tried it for the first time.....i don't know, maybe, i wasn't a quick learner, there were so so so much of flaws in the process........

To achieve 2 layers of cakes, i used 2 round cake tins (to avoid d cutting part). The chocolate cakes were pretty straight forward though the texture was still not fluffy enough!! Will try sponge cake recipe instead next time......


Once the cakes were done, i started to get pressure......as it was time to prepare the toppings & fillings !!! This is the most challenging part .......FOR ME !!! I never get to do a good & desired "FRESH CREAM". There were still lots of doubts, questions & queries running in my mind despite having several recipes in hand. So, i'd vowed to actually go for a basic baking class/workshop !! Am still checking around for a suitable one....

What i learnt from browsing & other methods available, fresh cream is same as whipped cream. To achieve it, you just got to WHIP the whipping liquid with icing sugar! Sounds easy but i still haven't figured out what caused my many failures. Was it the plastic/wooden bowl that i used instead of the recommended stainless steel/glass type??? Was it the mixer speed??? Was it due to over whipping??? Or was it not enough icing sugar......arghhh i dunno....
Many times, my whipping job ended up with the cream texture turned into watery mixture with lumpy cream & it happened so sudden that at one second it still look OK but.... ???!!!! And i had to re-do it again & again!! The same thing happened again this afternoon.....

Suddenly, the whipping cream became too watery.....i failed miserably!! And it was such a disspointed feeling then. Plus sis, Mag who was here to 'kepoh' kept tarnished my determination to succeed !!! The moment i started the cream preparation, she already showed the 'concern yet teasing look' !! Upon seeing my 1st failed job, she already 'shake' her head & said:
'cannot one la' ..... 'not like that one la'..... and i knew if it was her job, she would have given up.....

My sis kept argued that fresh cream was not made from whipping cream but from egg whites instead !! But i've never came across any topping recipes that calls for egg white!! I did not relent to her claims but insist that i've used the right ingredients!! But the thing is, i did not keep any extra whipping cream handy (another lesson leearnt)!!
See how terrible was the look of the cream in between the 2 layers of cakes??? Anyway, another lesson was not to start the creaming until the cakes were fully COOL DOWN !!

Seeing that, i quickly sandwiched the cakes & place it into the fridge to cool.
See how ugly after putting the pitted cherries onto the failed cream!!!

After putting the cake into the fridge, i was standing there feeling so miserable yet persistent to make it through !!! So, my stubborn mind instantly want to gush out of the house to get some whipping cream & continued with the whipping cream journey as after all, the cakes were perfectly fine so how can i just gave up, it's only the topping that i got to work on!!

So there i was hinting to huby in Cantonese to bring the boys upstairs so that i could sneaked out myself (knowing that the monkeys would not let me go alone)!! But this lil cheeky Scot seemed to understand what i mumbled in the dialect he didn't speak and quickly ran towards me & hugged on to my elephant thigh!!
I want to follow...... i want follow mumy.......eeeee.......eeeee.......eeee
I negotiated......i bribed.......i explained.....everything not worked.....he just won't let me go until i became so furious.....soon the pushing+pinching+smacking ensued !!! He cried & screamed....so in the end dady wants me to bring him alone. Only angelic Sean would give tolerance at times like this.....so i promised to buy him snacks!!
I basically 'threw' Scot in the car.....i tell you!! I stormed into the nearest GIANT and swiped all the things i needed (4 boxes of 200gm whipping cream.....hahaha) and some junks of course!

And during that short time of shopping, there was a sudden HEAVY DOWN POUR....God decided to make life more difficult for me!! After paying up, it was still raining cats & dogs. No umbrella with me but i didn't want to waste time waiting!! So i asked Scot: "wanna play water or not"?? "of which he obviously replied yes yes yes while nodding his head"

So mumy & Scot braved through the heavy down pour, running back to our car, getting a bit soaky all over.....hahaha!!!

Then back to my " cream journey "at home!! 2nd attempt still turned out watery......plus my lousy 'palia' hand held mixer didn't have a cover to the mixing bowl thus resulting in the mixture splashing everywhere......the place & my clothes was so messy!! Mag kept telling me not to waste effort but i continued to add another new box of whipping cream & continued beating & beating & beating ................. until i began to see it turning thicker & glossier......then only Mag shut up!!! Phewww......after really really much effort, the cream started to look..........okay!!
And The rest was history !!!

Finally the decorating stage began.......and my heart was beating with much relief......

Yeah....me in action.....Mag quickly snapped....snapped & snapped !!

As Mag began to see the joy of me squeezing out the piping, she wanted to try 'pulak'.....

I gotta admit that after sprinkled with the shaved chocolate & fruits, it kind of helped to cover up the 'flaws' a lot.....really !! That's exactly what Mag commented too....cilaka betul !!

Anyway, who cares la so long as the final outcome was something that i'm so so proud of ......hahaha......
Ohh ya, btw.....it's not the season for fresh cherry now so couldn't find any around & had replaced with strawberries instead !!!

NAH
** tadda **

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ooopppss.....the middle part's cream has melted & vanished........

The greatest of all, we had another pot luck session at my elder sister house! Besides cooking over a simple minced meat tofu, i brought along this beautifully made black forest cake plus a fruit salad to share with all my other family members!!

Of course for the rest of my sisters, BIL, parents who didn't get to see the ugly scenes behind "the making of it", they all gave a very good compliment to my cake esp. mom who said the cake tasted very nice, being not too sweet which was the most significant! The kids had a good time walloping the cakes too!!
Since mom's birthday is just around the corner, i took this opportunity to get the kids to sing Happy B'day song to poh-poh !!! Isn't that a great achievement after all??

Sean & Scot with cousins around poh-poh.....argh, so warm !!

THE END ....
to the tales of Black Forest Cake!!